A 22-year-old man has fallen to his death after slipping on rocks at Gibraltar Falls, south west of Canberra on Saturday afternoon.
It is the second death in less than a week at the popular tourist spot, after 19-year-old Sydney man Tom Livingstone also lost his footing at the same spot and fell over the edge of the waterfall six days earlier.
ACT Police were called to Gibraltar Falls, which is located about 46 km from Canberra, at about 5.25pm on Saturday.
About half an hour later, the man was found unconscious in the water but he was unable to be revived. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Geoffrey Rutledge, who is the deputy director general of the Environment, Water and Emissions Reduction department of the ACT Government, told reporters tourists were meant to enjoy the site’s walking trail and viewing platform but not swim there.
“The signage does show that we don’t want people near the edges and we don’t see it as a swimming hole,” he said.
“We have many swimming holes within our parks. We don’t consider Gibraltar Falls a swimming hole.”
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Rutledge said the gates to the park had been closed since last week’s deadly accident and a safety review was already underway.
The location had become a popular spot to take photos, due to the influence of social media, Rutledge said.
“Social media seems to encourage people to take photos at that site,” he said.
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“That’s not what we prefer to do, because there are inherent risks with that site. (There are) very slippery rocks and a slippery trip could be problematic.”
