THE body of a National Parks worker crushed to death in a Blue Mountains landslide remained on the hazardous track last night while rescue workers determined how to safely retrieve him.
The 36-year-old contractor and two fellow workers were working to make the closed National Pass walking track safe when they were hit by a rush of rocks that bushwalkers said sounded like “dynamite going off”.
The men were all wearing harnesses to suspend them near the bottom of a rock face when the sudden landslide brought parts of the sandstone escarpment 10m above crashing down on them, killing the 36-year-old at about 11.45am yesterday. His 27-year-old colleague suffered leg and pelvic injuries and their 26-year-old co-worker suffered multiple fractures.
“Two National Parks workers were the first people to get to the scene and render first aid. They are pretty traumatised,” said Paul Noack, from the Australian Workers’ Union.
“They are all known to the workers there so it is a real tragedy for the community.”
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Bushwalker Mike Burgess said: “I heard this massive — it sounded like dynamite going off — but I knew it wouldn’t be dynamite, it would be a big slab.
“We heard all the blooming rocks smash down through the bush … right after that I heard a bloke scream,” he told the ABC. “I’d say there were some pretty bad injuries down there.”
Fifteen ambulances, including special operations team paramedics and three rescue helicopters plus NSW Police, were part of a multi-agency team to respond to the accident in the rugged terrain.
The track had been closed since August because of the “extreme hazard”.
An ambulance spokesman said it took officers 45 minutes to reach the remote accident site on a track 100m below the cliff top and 100m above the ground.
The injured men were winched from the scene by helicopter and taken to Westmead and St George hospitals for treatment.
Their families were contacted and an elderly couple related to one of the injured men held hands as they were escorted down to the site.
Police Superintendent Darryl Jobson said: “Obviously this is a tragic incident, a very sensitive operation involving the Police Rescue squad, Ambulance NSW and also National Parks and Wildlife Service.”
He said the dead man’s body would remain under police guard at the scene overnight until experts had assessed how to safely recover it.
It will be a delicate operation, with more rain expected to add to the 3mm received in the 24 hours before the rock slide. “We will be engaging expert services from Public Works NSW to provide us with that (safety) assessment,” Supt Jobson said.
The victim’s family members were eventually contacted with the tragic news just before 6pm.
The National Pass walking track at Wentworth Falls was closed at the end of August due to dangerous and unstable rocks overhead. Rocks had already fallen on the track in November last year.
A National Parks warning said the area had been assessed by a geotechnical engineer due to “a very dangerous, unstable section of rock above the walking track”.
It said “appropriate measures” would be undertaken to “remove this extreme hazard”.
It is understood the work was being done to reopen the popular track in time for the Christmas holidays. Environment Minister Gabrielle Upton said the rock fall was “horrific”.
“I extend my deepest sympathies to the family, friends and colleagues of the man killed and my thoughts are with the two men injured.”
Two years ago, under then premier Mike Baird, the NSW government slashed $15.5 million from the National Parks and Wildlife Service budget.
Blue Mountains mayor Mark Greenhill said: “When someone is hurt within our city, everyone feels it. And so I know there will be a very shattered community tonight over this dreadful, dreadful thing that’s happened.”
HISTORY OF FALLS STEEPED IN SADNESS
YESTERDAY’S fatal landslide was not the first tragedy to strike the picturesque National Pass track in the Blue Mountains.
A 20-year-old British tourist plunged 50 metres to his death when he slipped over the edge of a waterfall at Wentworth Falls on the National Pass track in January 2013.
Police said the man had been walking off the track with friends at the time of the incident.
And at nearby Empress Falls in May, 2016, Cheng Shi Min, known as “Angel”, was hiking with her boyfriend when she lost her footing and was killed in a 20m plunge.
The 21-year-old was studying to be a teacher.
Four months later circus performer Toby Benham, 31, died while performing a clifftop stunt on the aptly named “death swing” at Hanging Rock. Mr Benham, known as “Lucky Chance”, was dangling from a rope when it smashed into jagged rocks.
The National Pass walk is regarded as a national treasure, attracting 90,000 visitors annually.
The track was painstakingly built using picks, shovels, crowbars and dynamite between 1906 and 1907. It’s believed the total cost of the track at the time was £430 ($757).
The 4.5km loop takes about 2½ hours to walk, starting at the Wentworth Falls picnic area and ending at the Grand Stairway.
A zigzag staircase was cut into the cliff face so hikers could access Wentworth Falls, where yesterday’s rockslide occurred. Quarrying was then carried out to create a path to the stairs.
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