Over the weekend, my parents travelled to Hanging Rock for a concert. “Don’t go for a picnic” I warned, having previously heard of the infamous “Picnic at Hanging Rock” tale of warning. On Sunday night, my parents returned (unharmed) and immediately insisted we watch the 1975 film adaptation of Australian author Joan Lindsay’s 1967 novel. “We asked at the visitor information centre if the story was true, and apparently there has been some debate about that” my father told us. I must admit I was confused- how could there be debate over the disappearance of several women? Did it or did it not happen?!?!? We put the movie on and a few hours later we were no more aware of what happened to the girls who disappeared while exploring the ranges on a school picnic than we were before watching the movie. I decided to research whether the story was true or not, and found mixed opinions.

Lindsay refused to publish the last chapter of Picnic at Hanging Rock and had arranged for it to only be released three years after her death. I can only imagine the frustration this would’ve left readers with as the book lingered on a cliff hanger, with the promise of a resolution if patience is exercised. All I can think about is how annoyed I would be to have waited all those years and finally being able to read the last chapter- which doesn’t solve anything.

I find it intriguing how localising a story with a known landmark has kept Lindsay’s narrative alive, and how even to this day the story is still associated with the place, despite it having no connection to real events. As the Rowena Gilbert states in her article on castleofspirits.com, Lindsay herself had a few things to say about the truth behind her tale; “Whether (the book) is Fact or Fiction, my readers must decide for themselves. As the fateful picnic took place in the year nineteen hundred, and all the characters who appear in this book are long since dead, it hardly seems to matter”. Lindsay went on to say “I can’t tell you whether the story is fact or fiction . . . but a lot of very strange things have happened around the area of Hanging Rock – things that have no logical explanation”.

After scrolling through numerous conspiracy theories, film and book reviews, the only conclusion I could successfully draw was that this story has been told in numerous ways, and linked to other strange occurrences in the area. My father told me he remembered watching the film adaptation when he was in high school, but what stuck in his mind was being told about a hill in the area that supposedly “lies” to the eye. Straws road is just your average…you know….road, except it…uh….can make cars roll uphill? After years of thinking about how this could be possible, my father made sure Straws road was on the list of places to visit on his weekend away. He returned with a video of him driving his car downhill, putting it into neutral and then eerily being pulled back uphill by an invisible force. “In high school we all thought superstitiously that it had something to do with the place, and Picnic at Hanging Rock was our muse for that” he states. Attached below is a video from a user on youtube experiencing the same uncanny sensation of rolling up a hill.

So surely someone has done some research into all this mystery, right?  “Having a close friend who works in the State Library of Victoria, I’m amused to hear her weekly stories of how many people think they are the first to have the idea to investigate the mystery for themselves.” Gilbert writes, “They confidently walk in expecting to find the newspaper articles from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s on the disappearances but are sadly disappointed. There have been many accounts of the staff in State Library who regularly have to deal with people breaking down in tears, throwing hysterics and being informed that its not a true story. Most simply do not want to believe this fact.”

Perhaps it is our fascination with urban myth or our desperation to link fact with fiction, but one thing is for sure and that is that this is a perfect example of how an artefact (in this case, a story developed into a novel and then feature film) can influence a culture and become a popular cultural entity itself. I, personally, found the movie quite tedious and boring, but I was still forced by my curiosity to stay put due to the familiarity of the landscape presented and from the myth it has since circulated.

References:

Castle of Spirits; The Truth behind Picnic at Hanging Rock, Gilbert; Rowena, retrieved 1-4-15 from http://www.castleofspirits.com/picnicathangingrock.html

Oh, and another question- why does everybody in the stories only care about finding Miranda!? There were several other women too!