Photo of family at popular national park sparks fury: 'Pure selfishness'
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A family making the most of a long weekend in the outdoors have come under fire for an act branded as 'selfish' by other national park visitors.
The family of five were visiting Picnic Bay in Wilsons Promontory National Park in Victoria and found a picturesque spot to set up for the day – but their location of choice was a popular sightseeing platform offering stunning views over the Bass Strait.
One peeved bushwalker posted the photo to Reddit, saying the family took up the “entire sightseeing platform so nobody else can take photos”.
“It's a long weekend so Wilson's Promontory was very busy, a lot of people missed out on great photos and views because these people wanted it for themselves,” he said.
The man said he stopped by the lookout at about 1pm on Saturday before going on a hike, and noticed the family had set up camping chairs and a picnic rug across the platform.
Adding further context in the comments, he described their behaviour as “pure selfishness” but said he did not confront them as he had to hurry to catch his bus.
“It is a designated lookout. There are signs marked 'viewing area' with a picture of a person using a camera,” he said.
“They're occupying the entire space in a public location that should be open to be enjoyed by everyone. It's pure selfishness, there's no way to be ignorant of the fact that others in the park would also like to use the shared space.”
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He said he overheard another observer saying: “That's just f***ing rude.”
The post attracted thousands of comments, and while many agreed with the hiker, others thought it was possible the family “weren’t aware of their surroundings” didn’t realise they were in the way.
Others thought the bushwalker should’ve simply asked the family to move instead of turning to social media to complain, while some responders had a cheeky way of letting the family know they were in the way.
“I’d have no problem walking up to them and saying, “excuse me, could you take our picture?” one said.
“And have a seat and say, ‘wow! Its so nice that they put out these nice chairs and snacks, too!’” another suggested.
“Sit on their chairs or laps,” a third joked.
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