Google Maps mistakenly directs tourists looking for Blue Mountains in Australia to dead-end cul-de-sac

Confused visitors come by most days

The Three Sisters rock formation in Blue Mountains National Park (Getty Images)

Google maps has mistakenly been directing tourists looking for a local beauty spot in Australia to a dead-end cul-de-sac.

Hundreds of visitors followed the app's directions to “Blue Mountains” but instead found themselves in Valley View Road in Dargan, New South Wales.

The street is about 30 minutes away from the Blue Mountains National Park, which draws over four million people a year to see the famous Katoomba Falls, Three Sisters rock formation and large variety of wildlife.

Residents first noticed the error in 2015, when Google Earth showed images of the mountains attached to their address. Last year they began to see an influx of visitors and during the peak tourist months at the end of 2016 confused sightseers were driving down the street on a daily basis.

Residents were forced to put up this sign to help visitors

Valley View Road resident Karen McLaughlin said that many people following the directions are non-English speaking tourists. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald she said: “I don't blame them at all. I feel sorry that they've come 35 kilometres out of their way and then have to go back again."

However, McLaughlin notes that the visitors have caused some serious problems.

She said: "These tourists do not realise they are quickly coming to a cul-de-sac, over a crest, and often approach the end of the street at speed and have to brake sharply.

The error was fixed this morning. Google Maps now places Blue Mountains in the centre of the park

"Yesterday there were children playing on the property which would be directly in the pathway of any vehicles losing control".

In addition she and many other residents have had their property trampled on and people have taken to knocking on doors asking to use the toilet, or even relieving themselves in residents' gardens.

Some confused tourists also start smoking cigarettes as soon as they leave their cars, a problem in an area where fire danger due to the dry surrounding bushland is a serious issue.

Residents of the street have tried to contact Google Maps hundreds of times to correct the error but to no avail. A Google spokesperson said: "The various types of data found in Google Maps come from a wide range of sources, including third-party providers, public sources, and user contributions.

"Overall, this provides a very comprehensive and up-to-date map experience, but we recognise that there may be occasional inaccuracies that could arise from any of those sources".

As of this morning, the error had been corrected, with the pin for Blue Mountains now dropping in the centre of the national park.