2 hikers who perched on narrow cliff ledge in Queensland national park cheat death
Two young hikers are taking online flak after hopping the fence of a popular tourist outlook in Australia and perching just centimetres from a sloping cliff’s edge on Tuesday.
A clip posted on TikTok showed a man and a woman sitting precariously on a narrow ledge just below the clifftop of a mountain at Queensland’s Springbrook National Park, on the Gold Coast.
They were filmed by other hikers from a viewing platform.
“I wouldn’t… would you? Wait for the zoom in,” one of those who saw the pair wrote on a video he later uploaded on TikTok.
He said he saw the two hikers after their impromptu stunt, and that they appeared to be speaking German.
The TikTok video went viral, prompting Queensland’s Department of Environment and Science to remind those going to the national park that they risk fines by ignoring safety signs.
“The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service reminds visitors to national parks to obey all signs and any directions from rangers for safety reasons,” the department told news.com.au
“Visitors must observe barriers and not enter closed areas,” it said. “People can risk serious injuries and put their lives and those of rescuers (if needed) at risk when entering closed areas.”
The scene was captured a month after hiker Rory Lane went missing in the Gold Coast’s Lamington National Park for almost two full days.
He was just hours away from dying when he was discovered by emergency services with head, facial, and possible spinal injuries.
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