All of the Blue Mountains National Park, save for two beauty spots – the Evans Lookout and Govetts Leap Lookout – has been indefinitely closed to the public following a landslide on April 4 that claimed the lives of two bushwalkers near Wentworth Falls.
A British family of five, visiting NSW on holiday, were struck by falling rocks which tragically killed a 49-year-old father and his nine-year-old son. While the mother and her 14-year-old son were badly injured in the accident, the family’s oldest child, a 15-year-old-girl, managed to raise the alarm and guide authorities to her trapped family. She has been praised by National Parks rangers and paramedics as a hero.
The relentless rains that have drenched the East Coast for several weeks have created dangerous conditions that could lead to further slippages, endangering the lives of visitors hiking on the area’s many bush trails. It is not currently known when the park will reopen to visitors. The Wentworth Falls trail that the family was hiking had been deemed safe just days prior to the fatal slip.