After two accidental deaths 11 months ago, the popular and picturesque Gibraltar Falls in the Tidbinbilla Reserve will remain a no-go area to the general public for the foreseeable future.
Access to the car park will remain locked off, additional temporary fencing and warning signs have been installed and concrete barriers placed along Corin Road to prevent people parking in unsafe places on the roadway and walking in.
The new signs carry the blunt warning: "People have died here".
Two young men, one aged 19 and the other 22, died in separate incidents at the falls in February last year, which triggered the closure.
The ACT coroner is yet to investigate either incident.
The future of access, which is part of the walking track to nearby Woods Reserve, is now in limbo, with tall chain-link security fencing almost certain to be a permanent fixture when it reopens.
A risk-mitigation strategy for the area was provided by an independent consultant midway through last year but the risks escalated when ACT Parks became aware of people ignoring the signs and accessing the area.
The quandary ahead for ACT Parks is how to allow bushwalkers onto the track, but prevent people from climbing the rocks.
Acting senior director of Parks and Partnerships Michaela Watts said additional fencing had been put up and it follows the walking track.
"Until we get permanent safety fencing installed internal to that fence and that [access] gate that will prevent access to the rock pools and areas beyond the viewing platforms, we're going to keep the car park and the barriers at the roadside in place," she said.
The falls have been visited by Canberrans and visitors to the region for decades, with the cooling waters of the rock pools above and below, and spectacular 50-metre falls.
But there appears to be no clear-cut answer to permit safe public access to the pools as there are a number of "informal" tracks which have been made over the years which lead off the main walking track.
While ACT rangers patrol occasionally, the ACT government has said previously it can't provide a "security service" for the area.
"These are horrible accidents that we don't want to see repeated and we want to do everything we can to keep our visitors safe," Ms Watts said.
"If it's by discouraging the majority of people accessing these unsafe areas with fencing, then that's what we'll do.
"We would want people to enjoy the falls safely, which is from our viewing platform and from the walking track."
She said there were other areas where people can swim or paddle, including Woods Reserve.
"When we think about some of the accidental drownings that have occurred across the ACT in the Murrumbidgee River, we just have to acknowledge that inland waters are never really safe," she said.
"In the case of Gibraltar Falls, it's traversing the rocks ... where we want to keep the community safe."
