Picnic at Hanging Rock

Picnic at Hanging Rock is an icon of Australian literature and film. The book was written in 1967 by Joan Lindsay, and such was its impact that it was soon after adapted to film by Peter Weir, in 1975.

Written in the form of a true story, and set on Valentines Day in 1900, the book centres on the disappearance of a number of teenage girls and one of their teachers during an excursion to Hanging Rock in country Victoria. The first half of the story focusses on the girls as they prepare for this longed-for picnic, and after the disappearance, the impact this has on their fellow students and the larger community. But the mystery was never solved, and hence its endless fascination.

A still from Picnic at Hanging Rock, the 1975 film directed by Peter WeirThe character that has most impact on everyone in her world is the ethereal Miranda, who looks, as her French teacher remarks, like a Botticelli angel. All the girls are dressed similarly, in white muslin dresses, buttoned high around the throat and tight around the wrists, with straw boaters on their heads, but there is indeed something special about Miranda. She floats about like a spirit from another world, and she speaks as though she knows she is only visiting for a short time. And then she is gone.

An alternate version of my image treated like a vintage photograph

All sorts of sordid and mystical theories – sexual molestation, abduction, murder – are put forth to explain their disappearance, but none of them come close to the truth. For in fact, Lindsay had written a final chapter resolving the mystery, but her editor suggested she remove it prior to publication. Chapter Eighteen was subsequently published in 1987, and if you burn to know the truth, you can read about it here.

Here is my little homage: my lacy dress (a souvenir from Vietnam) looks more like the girls’ chemises than a dress, but the cotton Battenberg lace parasol and the enamel cups are something these girls from 1900 would immediately recognise.