A Google Maps glitch has been causing some confusion for tourists in Australia
A mislabelling of the Blue Mountains has been sending tourists to a cul-de-sac more than 15 miles away.
Tourists in Australia looking for the country’s Blue Mountains have instead been finding themselves in a quiet cul-de-sac thanks to a glitch in Google Maps.
The Sydney Morning Herald has reported residents of Valley View Road in Dargan, New South Wales – about 30 kilometres north of the main hub of tourist viewpoints in the area – have been inundated with hundreds of confused sightseers who had been using the mapping service on their travels.
According to the report, residents of the street first noticed an issue in 2015, when images from Blue Mountain tourist spots such as the Three Sisters and Katoomba Falls appeared attached to their address on the mapping service.
“People following Google Maps to ‘Blue Mountains’ are usually non-English-speaking tourists, and I don’t blame them at all,” resident Karen McLaughlin told the paper.
“I feel sorry that they’ve come 35 kilometres out of their way and then have to go back again.”
To try and warn lost visitors, residents erected a sign on the street giving quick instructions on how to actually reach the mountain range.
In a statement to the Sydney Morning Herald, Google said mistakes do happen, but are rare.
The report said that shortly after Google issued the statement, Maps was changed to place the “Blue Mountains” pin in the centre of its national park.
Misplaced pins and strange sightings on Google Maps – as well as other mapping services – are not a new phenomenon.
Last year, the small Norwegian village of Fossmark was incorrectly labelled as the location of popular tourist spot the Preikestolen cliff, which is in fact 18 miles away.
