Spend a picturesque day wandering through the Royal National Park in South Sydney, and you’ll be met with some of Australia’s greatest scenery, most sweeping views, tranquil paths…and a stupid fucking crowd fawning to take photos on Wedding Cake Rock, a now-infamously spongy, pure white formation that is fundamentally at odds with its inherent geology: a slab of sandstone.
And in terms of instagram fodder taken to by the masses in Sydney, Grounds of Alexandria-levels of ‘gramming is one thing, but #WeddingCakeRock-levels of ‘gramming brings the game to a wholly different playing field.
The phenomenon of trekking down South to visit the Royal National Park purely to harvest an excess of double taps on your instagram profile has become so rampant, according to local paper The Leader, that the National Parks and Wildlife Service has now erected a distinctly un-instagramable fence around Wedding Cake Rock’s edges. The new fencing and warning signs intend to curb an influx of tourists defacing the rock, and teetering too close to the perilous edge.
No doubt because gamey tourists are taking shots like this.
A NPWS representative told The Leader that the rock had seen an unprecedented surge in traffic and popularity over the last few months, calling it “one of those viral social media things.”
The spokesperson also described the new phenomenon and its risks:
“We are seeing some extremely risky behaviour with Instagram showing people sitting on the edge of the rock. There are two risks: one is overbalancing and the other is the stability of the whole structure. It’s not concrete but sandstone and there is a sheer drop to the ocean below.’’
Last June, a University of Wollongong student died at the Royal National Park, after falling from the edge of Wedding Cake Rock.
Take your basic instagramming elsewhere, sheeple.
Via SMH, The Leader.
Lead image via Instagram.
