Among Greenhill’s worries is an increase in vandalism at the site, with hundreds of initials and names now carved into the rock. But his greatest concern is risk to human life.
“Someone is going to fall off it, and that really worries me as well,” he said.
Like many Blue Mountains natural sites, Lincoln’s Rock is unfenced. In 2019, a teenager who visited the lookout lost his footing and fell 30 metres off the cliff face. He suffered 11 fractured ribs, seven cracked vertebrae, a broken shoulder blade and an injured foot.
Hundreds of visitors have carved their initials into Lincoln’s Rock.Credit: Steven Siewert
In a November meeting, the council voted to introduce a range of measures to control the volume of visitors and their impact on Lincoln’s Rock, including assigning a ranger taskforce to attend the site during peak periods for six months, erecting additional signage, installing temporary toilets and establishing an advisory group.
It comes after a sign made by frustrated locals, not authorised by the council, appeared at the site, incorrectly informing tourists it was closed to the public.
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The sign read that Lincoln’s Rock was “closed due to vandalism and neglect, signed the residents”. It was removed shortly after, but the Blue Mountains Gazette reported a similar sign was then displayed nearby.
Greenhill said the sign sent the wrong message to tourists visiting the Blue Mountains.
“The Blue Mountains economy is totally reliant on tourism; we don’t have any secondary industries. So all that did was set up a really unhelpful ‘us and them’ mindset,” he said.
“We have to balance local amenity with the tourist economy, but that said, at Lincoln’s Rock, the balance isn’t right.”
The Sydney Morning Herald has opened a bureau in the heart of Parramatta. Email parramatta@smh.com.au with news tips.