Wedding Cake Rock: Sydney landmark is dangerously cakey

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Wedding Cake Rock is a dangerously photogenic landmark in Sydney which has numerous tourists flocking to its cliff edge to capture the most perfect social media snaps.

But the authorities are so concerned by the snappers' risking of their lives that they have called in New South Wales (NSW) police to assist the site's rangers.

NSW Parks and Wildlife (NWPS) is concerned that visitors continue to ignore all the warning signs.

"Living life on the edge," writes Instagram user @maryjkapaprika on a post taken at the Wedding Cake Rock.

The landmark, located just south of Sydney in the Royal National Park, was named for its white color and flat layered surface which resembles a wedding cake.

It looks harmless, but the rock is deemed by scientists to be in danger of imminent collapse.

Warning signage was erected at the site in 2016 to warn visitors against risking their lives. /Screenshot via Instagram

Its easy-to-deceive color is caused by iron leaching, which makes the rock dangerously soft and prone to cracking – just like a wedding cake.

And its popularity for as a picture backdrop shows no sign of ending.

On Instagram, there are almost 25,000 posts with the hashtag #weddingcakerock.

Instagram users @adamazurek(L) and @jamiechen5669(R) posted their daredevil adventure.

"I like dangerous pictures," writes Instagram user @eva_dubois(L).

How dangerous is Wedding Cake Rock?

In 2014, a French tourist died at the Wedding Cake Rock when a portion of rock crumbled beneath him, Travel Weekly reported.

A 2015 geotechnical report found that the site could collapse at any time – and without warning – into the sea 50 meters below.

In addition, a 1.6-meter-high fence was set up in 2016 in an attempt to prevent tourists from entering, and fines of up to 3,300 US dollars for anyone caught by rangers climbing the fence were introduced. But it didn’t stop visitors trying to scale the fence.

Another scene of the 50-meter-rock taken by Instagram user @robertbphoto.

"The warning signage at Wedding Cake Rock and the need to climb a 1.6-meter-high fence makes it impossible for people to be unaware of the extreme danger…It is extremely difficult to try to regulate this behavior when people are intent on ignoring the signage, avoiding detection and intentionally going over the fence," an NWPS spokesperson said, ABC reported.