This Sydney lookout was once a local secret. Then a K-pop star came to visit

3 months ago 17

Hidden down a dirt trail and with stunning panoramic views of Jamison Valley, Lincoln’s Rock at Wentworth Falls was once a local secret.

But now, on any given day hundreds of tourists flock to the Blue Mountains site to sit on the rock’s edge and capture the perfect Instagram shot.

Lincoln’s Rock has experienced a surge in visitors recently.

Blue Mountains City Council Mayor Mark Greenhill said the recent influx of visitors can be explained by one thing: K-pop.

In 2023, one of the world’s biggest names in the Korean K-pop industry, Jennie from group Blackpink, shared with her 80 million-plus Instagram followers photos of herself at the lookout.

Greenhill said Lincoln’s Rock had been gradually increasing in popularity, but those photos “escalated it out of all proportion”. Now, he fears the site is being “loved to death”.

“The pictures that she posted went around the world, and that has led to an additional cohort of people now surging to the rock to pose where she did,” he said.

“There’s actually now a divot in the rock from the sheer number of people who are sitting there, emulating that picture … you can actually see a shiny white part on the rock where thousands of bums have literally worn away the rock.”

The increased number of tourists visiting the site could present a safety risk.

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.

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.

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 [email protected] with news tips.