Mornington Peninsula Shire voted on Tuesday night to close the area to visitors and build a fence to stop the ballooning number of visitors, after the site reached prominence on international tourism sites.

Mornington Peninsula Shire mayor Bev Colomb said due to a jump in interest in the Pillars from social media, the site has been overused.

"It's a secluded, sensitive cliff area and there's no infrastructure or anything to support an environmental spot like that from the hordes of visitation," she said

The council will appoint an education officer to provide information to visitors about issues at the site

"It needs to revegetate, we need to do whatever we can do to assist the erosion problems, we need to protect the cultural heritage on the site, and we really need to direct people to accessible, safe parts of our coast," Cr Colomb said.

Councillor David Gill, who voted against the motion on Tuesday night, said a fence would be an ineffective and slow way to restrict visitors.

"I believe that the site is so dangerous and so detrimental to a registered Aboriginal cultural heritage site that the only way to deal with the problem would be to have a complete ban on entry," he said.

He said that the ban on entry should be enforced by police.

President of the Mount Martha Life Saving Club David Mowat said he had mixed emotions, but was pleased about the closure from a safety point of view.

"It was getting out of control. The amount of visitors coming down was increasing and it was getting dangerous," he said.

The Pillars has featured on social media in the past two years as a place for thrill-seekers to jump off the cliff.

However, there have been injuries.

Mr Mowat said, "What [visitors] don't appreciate is that it's relatively shallow, and rocks as well. You've really got to know where you're jumping from."

Cr Colomb said the area would be patrolled until a permit was issued to build the fence.

She said that the message was: "Start visiting somewhere else on the peninsula".

"We've got beautiful beaches for you to meet with your friends and enjoy. We're just asking you to respect our sensitive areas and our wonderful cliffs. The erosion is just way too fast for that visitation," she said.