For decades, the distraught and depressed have thrown themselves off the cliff's crumbling sandstone lip, perishing on the giant rock slabs below or drowning in the surf.

It has been a place of tragedy from the earliest days of the colony. In 1857 a British ship, the Dunbar, was smashed to pieces at the base of The Gap as it tried to enter Sydney Harbour during atrocious weather. All but one of its passengers and crew were killed.

This year 37 people have taken their lives at The Gap. Police have reported another 110 'instances' where they have been called out to thwart suspected suicides or deal with issues of public safety.

The most prominent of the recent deaths was the suicide of a glamorous young television newsreader. Charmaine Dragun, who worked for the Channel Ten network, was described by colleagues as 'beautiful and bubbly', with everything to live for.

But Dragun, 29, had suffered from depression for a long time, and her body was found at the foot of The Gap early this month. Family and friends held a memorial service this week in Perth.

Now there are plans to introduce a range of suicide-prevention initiatives at the popular park. The proposal has been in the pipeline since last year but has received intense media scrutiny in the light of Dragun's death.

The local council wants to install closed-circuit television cameras, linked to a local police station, and free, vandal-proof emergency telephones connected to suicide prevention help lines.

'You press a button on the phone and you go straight through to Lifeline,' said Geoff Rundle, the mayor of Woollahra Council. 'It's a plan we've been working on since May last year.'

The motion-activated cameras would be monitored by police at nearby Rose Bay. It is unlikely the cameras would prevent suicides - once alerted to someone approaching the cliff edge, it would take police a good 10 minutes to reach the site.

But they could lessen the pain for the families of people who disappear and whose bodies are not found for days or even weeks. 'It will bring closure for loved ones,' Mr Rundle said. Lighting will also be improved, so that police can identify people.

The fence along the top of the cliff will be replaced with a 1.3 metre, inward-leaning balustrade which will be much harder to clamber over.

The A$1 million (HK$6.92 million) draft plan for the area's upgrade goes on public display next week.

Spokeswoman Louise Newman of the Royal Australian College of Psychiatrists said any measures that made suicide physically more challenging could help save lives.

'Suicide rates are very much related to access to a way of actually doing that,' she said.

The improvements are part of the first substantial renovation of the park in 25 years, but the council dismisses suggestions that it should have acted decades ago. 'A million people a year visit The Gap, so the proportion of people who commit suicide is tiny,' Mr Rundle said. 'You can't put up a wire prison fence. Ultimately, you can't stop people taking their own lives.'