A Gerringong resident, who gave his name as Craig, supplied photos he took at the site on Saturday afternoon, showing three men well beyond the guardrail around the tourist attraction.

In one photo, an older man is less than 10 metres from the mouth of the blowhole, walking on rocks slippery from ocean spray, while two younger men appear engrossed in their phones and not watching the water.

“There was a big south-easterly wind blowing, and the blowhole was going pretty well,” Craig said.

“The older man got saturated with water from the spray – he was only about five metres away from the hole at one point.”

Cr Petschler was scathing of the men’s actions.

“It is very irresponsible, and I deplore that foolhardy activity,” he said.

“Whole families have drowned in that area. Even on a quiet day, it is extremely dangerous to go beyond the fence.”

In 1992 seven people were swept off rocks near the blowhole and drowned.

Cr Petschler said after that incident, council erected warning signs and fencing around the blowhole area to stop people entering dangerous parts of the rock shelf.

“I’m not sure what else we can do, we can’t fence off the entire coastline of Australia,” he said.

“You can’t stop stupidity.”

Cr Petschler strongly discouraged anyone from trying to climb down to the blowhole mouth, saying it was an unpredictable area.