A man is in a critical condition after falling from a rock ledge near the popular Figure Eight Pools in NSW’s Royal National Park on Sunday.
The man, believed to be in his mid-20s, had reportedly diverted off the main track and was trying to walk along a cliff ledge when he fell onto rocks.
Paramedics arrived on foot, and found the man with cuts to his chest and head. An ambulance helicopter then winched him out and flew him to St George Hospital, where remained in a critical condition on Sunday afternoon.
Photo: Fire & Rescue NSW Bundeena 080 Station / Facebook.
Peter Pearce, the secretary of the nearby Burning Palms Surf Life Saving Club, said that the cliff ledge was often used as a shortcut by people during the four-hour hike to get to the pools.
“You have to walk around the cove to get to the Figure Eight Pools,” he said in a post on the local Fire and Rescue Facebook page. “Some people use the rock ledge as a shortcut… but they shouldn’t use it – it’s very dangerous.”
He also said the man was in “a pretty bad condition” when emergency services arrived.
The pools are insanely popular on Instagram, but can be extremely dangerous, not least because it’s difficult for emergency services to reach the remote location.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUVxnXvFs0Z/?tagged=figureeightpools
In 2016, 70 people were injured when a freak wage washed over the pools, with three needing to be flown to safety due to the severity of their injuries.
“They have put up signs along the track, but people just ignore them – especially people from overseas, as it’s on their bucket list to visit,” said Pearce.
“The signs show pictures of how the conditions should be, and say not to come if it doesn’t look like [the pictures], but people just ignore them. Next minute a wave washes across the rocks, and we have to treat a lot of them.”
It’s not dissimilar to Wedding Cake Rock, the very aesthetic sandstone rock in the Royal National Park that could literally collapse at any second. The park closed that one to the public (and have no plans to do the same at the pools), but uh, sometimes common sense gets squashed by the mission for the perfect ‘gram.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaQsyJln19f/?tagged=weddingcakerock
