Picnic at Hanging Rock - The Truth Revealed

[@mikaelaalyssa]

Picnic at Hanging Rock remains one of my favorite stories, and I learned so much more about it through this video! Truly amazing. You deserve more subscribers !

[@thedarksidepress]

Thank you Mikaela! It's a brand new channel and I'm trying to add content of quality. So comments like yours go a long way to motivate me to do more.

[@reginagilby1101]

Same.. I remember this story as a young girl and has always been apart of me

[@Krowboi-q4x]

I've been there when I was young

[@Krowboi-q4x]

Are U be Australian​@@reginagilby1101

[@lenimargi]

I’m giving a talk on Picnic at Hanging Rock - An Uncanny Valentine’s Day - Australia 1900 - Prof. Marguerite Johnson. In this talk, Marguerite Johnson shares an alternative Valentine story - a story far removed from cupids and love hearts. Digital Events - Zoom Lecture Feb 12th 2025 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm GMT. Recorded if you miss it. To book: An Uncanny Valentine’s Day - Australia 1900 - Prof. Marguerite Johnson - The Last Tuesday Society

[@TrangPakbaby]

What I love abt the story is no matter how many times you tell people the story is fiction, there are some people who will debate you and they swear they’ve heard stories abt similar cases and the story IS true. They really NEED to believe that the story is real. That’s the true power of the story💕

[@christophersimons128]

I saw the film at the time of release. Though only 12 years old and immature for my age, the film spoke to me in a way that stayed with me ever since. I watched it several times in later life, and it has even been incorporated in my dreams at times. Whether based on true events or not, it is a magnificent work, and has meaning beyond words, capturing the beauty and tragedy of life, and it's enduring mystery. For me it is true in a way that is ineffable, and it is a work of depth and beauty that touches my soul.

[@nornac-c5y]

My feelings exactly. I was about 6 or 7 back then and I felt the magic of the movie right away. It is poetic, mysterious and beautiful. The setting, the music, the actors, everything is perfect and it will be my forever favourite movie of all times.

[@the.parks.of.no.return]

There is some truth to it But it's normally white college educated males known for their intelligence and physical prowess. Normally only one rather than a group. A dream pointing to where the victim is is a regular feature, as is lack of clothes.

[@JamesHawkeYouTube]

The Rock itself is one of the most eerie and ethereal places I've ever been. There's something very strange about that place and the forms of the rocks.

[@jackspring7709]

I live in the UK, grew up in Ireland and I've been to Australia. What struck me most about Australia is that there's something very surreal and dreamlike about the country. I'm not even talking about the landscapes as I spent most of my time in the city (Perth & Sydney). Its not easy to describe. Peter Weir's film captures that dreamlike surrealism perfectly, so it wasn't just a visual style he was going for, that's what Australia actually feels like. EDIT: Picnic at Hanging Rock hit the cinemas when I was a child. I always felt it was based on a true story, even back then, so I was surprised to find out the film was based on a novel. But even so I still believed it was based on a true story, so I was intrigued that the author didn't like being asked about it.

[@thedarksidepress]

If you haven't seen it, I can highly recommend another Peter Weir film called The Last Wave from 1977 which also delves into the dreamlike nature of Australia.

[@veenamishra8950]

​@@thedarksidepressAll his movies are great, including Gallipoli, Witness, & Year of Living Dangerously.

[@lisabowell143]

I grew up in the UK and I have been to Australia. I would agree with jackspring7709 that it does seem a very mysterious place in the Outback, definitely. It has the same feel as the film.

[@jackspring7709]

@ Thanks. I remember seeing 'The Last Wave' many, many years ago in Ireland: Richard Chamberlain, I believe, starred in it(?). Great film from what I remember. I must order the DVD. I love 'Long Weekend', too, and I still watch that regularly. Everett deRoche was the screenwriter but I can't remember the director's name.

[@jackspring7709]

@ Thanks, Lisa. I was wondering if anyone else had got the same sense of the place. I've lived in Germany, Ireland, of course and now the UK, and visited many other countries but Australia is the only place that had that feeling about it. My memories of the place have that same dreamlike quality too.

[@StacyCool-br8qc]

“everything begins and ends at exactly the right time and place”, this is my favourite quote ever

[@StephanieLærkeAndersen]

Peter Weir’s genius film is also his best. Australians should be immensely proud of this, which in my opinion is one of the best films in cinema history. I first watched this as a little girl learning English (I’m a Dane). It scared but fascinated me immensely, but I’ve come to appreciate its beauty as time has passed. Okay, so I’m only 29, but this haunting masterpiece has stayed with me for over 20 years, and hopefully it will for many years to come. It’s interesting to hear some of those accents sounding very very English. I wonder if the Aussie accent has developed more as time has passed into more modern times?

[@thedarksidepress]

It's interesting what you say about the Aussie accent Stephanie, as I'm Australian and my accent can usually pass as British to most non-natives. I haven't lived in Australia for a long time and maybe it's from living with the Brits but, I can definitely see a shift to a more 'Strine' accent coming through when watching their news broadcasts. Have you noticed any differences in listening to fellow Danes speak since you left there?

[@alibenkahn5092]

I'm always annoyed when I'm overseas and people say that I don't sound very Australian. Not everyone talks strine, in fact it's a rather oppressive stereotype. My Aussie accent is the norm amongst educated Australians. As for your original comment, it's true that 'nice' middle and upper class people spoke much more like their English counterparts in the 'mother country'. It was encouraged and was part of the later desire for us to develop our own films, books etc partly so we could hear ourselves as Aussies and not just copycat poms. So Australian English has evolved a lot since then. Also, don't forget that we have large numbers of migrants for whom English isn't their first language. Nowdays many of us are fierce defenders of Australian English and doing our best to resist the increasing tide of American English threatening to overtake us!9

[@timbodedidleo]

Some Australians are far more genteel than the ocker image would have you believe. The course versions of our Australian image has gained some international fame but is not universal. For example when my mother spoke she sounded like an English school teacher. My mother was %100 Australian born and raised and yet rather refined in her spoken manner.

[@mdee8784]

Anglo Australian’s British heritage definitely does linger to this day, particularly with those from upper echelon’s of Australian society. Several Australian actresses come to mind when I think of this old style accent too like Cate Blanchett and Elizabeth Debiki. David McMillan a celebrity “criminal “ also comes to mind.

[@ThePlataf]

It's " educated" Australian English.

[@WollongongSkyWatch]

All the primary classes of my school, and I expect most public schools in Australia, were taken to the cinema to see Picnic at hanging Rock. Once seen never forgotten! I just watched it on DVD and i am. Thank you for adding to the wonderful narrative surrounding this movie, book and author.

[@1stEarlOfSurrey]

Quite well done. Higher quality than most made-for-KZbin content. Thank you.

[@thedarksidepress]

You are most welcome Guillaume.

[@iandaniel2153]

... ditto!

[@belindahutchinson5333]

Very cleverly written to keep people so intrigued by this mysterious fiction.

[@sherylosullivan9619]

I saw the film as a teenager and I think I found it quite haunting. Years later I visited Hanging Rock with my husband and had a literal picnic there. It did have an air of mystery about it, whether that was my teenage imagination returning, who knows?

[@justaminute3111]

Really? I’ve been there. To me it was just a small hump of rock among farmland with a well trod trail to the top.

[@Ater_Draco]

TYSM for this analysis. I've never read the novel, but even thinking about what happened in the film still gives me the creeps. Especially poor Sara. Lady Lindsay created a wonderful story of gothic horror

[@richardfinlayson1524]

hanging rock is an amazing place , its very special. had some great experiences there.

[@troygaspard6732]

That grazing at a painting for years became the spark for her novel is marvelous.

[@ringo688]

I saw this film when it was first released in Australia when I was 6 and it made a huge impression on me. We'd only just emmigrated to Aus and it really resonated with me how strange and unfathomable my new home was compared to my old one in England.

[@thedarksidepress]

I think you've nailed it there. My personal take is that Picnic, at its core, is about feeling out of place in a strange land. Much like these students in the early 1900s must have felt, being at a school near the rock.

[@lindsaydoke9308]

I remember my neighbor Anne whose family was from Australia took me to see this movie. It filled me up with wondrous intrigue. Joan Lindsay is a remarkable unassuming woman. Thank for the brilliant research. I suddenly feel like a teenager again. Sitting beside Anne. The two of us looking at the movie screen in amazement. Lindsay is Australia's answer to Agatha Christie with one glaring difference. She leaves us with an unsolved mystery and a chance to widen our imaginations!

[@thedarksidepress]

Thanks for the comment Lindsay Doke and it pleases me to know that I've contributed something which I hope is of worth to the greater picture of Joan's thought process.

[@timbodedidleo]

"She leaves us with an unsolved mystery and a chance to widen our imaginations!" Fantastic comment. I agree wholeheartedly for this upholds the creative wonder. Joan Lindsay, is like an Australian writer of mystery (rather than crime). A dreamer within a "dreaming".

[@Kate-lk6tw]

Joan Lindsay wrote literary fiction. She is vastly superior to Christie, who wrote genre detective novels.

[@Camille_Anderson]

im just reading this classic again & love hearing reviews & theories about it. Its a masterpiece, both the movie & the novel! Hearing about it in the Australian accent is the most authentic way to hear it! The haunting score from the movie is beautiful to listen to whilst reading & sets the tone. everyone seems to have various endings or meaning to it & thats a further testimony to Joan Lindsay's genius. Thank you!

[@thedarksidepress]

I'm glad you enjoyed it and I'm surprised that you can spot an Australian accent. I thought many years spent living in the UK would have buried that.

[@dominiquedemerteuil]

@@thedarksidepress You don't have an Australian accent!

[@Sweetie-zf3ss]

@@dominiquedemerteuil listen Here Sheila he does have an Aussie twang if u can’t hear it u might want to clean ur lug holes out with soap no offence like 🤨🤨🤨🤨

[@jodiecross6651]

There is a last chapter to Picnic at Hanging Rock which was only to be released once Joan passed. It is the explanation to the whole story. Very interesting.

[@pembridgehouse]

Yes I have this at home somewhere. It is a very jumbled sort of explanation. I'll try and dig it up and do my own summary.I love the story.

[@Killedbyclowns]

@@pembridgehouseI also have it somewhere in my collection

[@pembridgehouse]

I found it!

[@grannyannie2948]

​@@pembridgehouseCan you please sum it up.

[@pembridgehouse]

@ I am releasing my video on this on valentines day.The last chapter goes into a sort of Alice through the Looking Glass phase. I rate the book as wonderful and I couldn't put it down when I first read it. In my opinion though, having read the last chapter and the comments of the man who released it(her original publishers agent) ,I regard it as definitely fiction and with no historical model to build the story around.

[@Vivianblue.]

The stunning mansion they used for the girls school is called Martindale Hall and is in the Clare Valley in South Australia. The public can visit for a small fee. It's absolutely gorgeous, and I highly recommend a visit.

[@miapdx503]

I'm glad I found this video. The film was haunting, and though I saw it a few times I still have questions. I should probably read the book. 🌹

[@kerrysmith7598]

I do think the extraordinary musical score was a very large part of the creepy, otherworldly reputation the movie has garnered over the years

[@JasonJames72]

Totally agree as I have that haunting tune on a 45 record. I found myself calling out for Miranda 😮

[@ruthbrazel7883]

Totally agree, the beautiful pan pipes sound when the girls walk in slow mo

[@JasonJames72]

@@ruthbrazel7883 not to mention the distorted rumble from the sky. Simple yet hauntingly effective 👌

[@Mikesbite]

The picnic at hanging rock mystery, has always fascinated me. As a creative artistic person, I could see all the seeds sown, for Joan to embroider a narrative. Fascinating!

[@bethdumont9020]

My dad went to Mt Macedon to train with the State Emergency Service (SES). He mentioned an interesting quirk of the highway that runs thru the region. Standing on the road, looking in one direction, the road appears to be going up the mountain; however if you stoop to the road and place a round pebble on the road, the pebble rolls DOWNWARDS. Apparently, the road trending up is an optical illusion.

[@user-qh8nh7oe6d]

Peter Weir directed Walkabout too. It was quite a simply written children's story, but with layers of meaning. The film intensifies the layers, so no matter how many times you see the film there are more layers, more meanings. Both are brilliant films.

[@GeorgeHughes-dd6fy]

Nicolas Roeg directed Walkabout . I can see where you can think otherwise they both have a mystery set in Australia .

[@justmepercy720]

Try The Last Wave. I feel Weir did even better. It’s more gritty.

[@user-qh8nh7oe6d]

@Justmepercy. Thank you, I will.

[@rookmountain]

Nicolas Roeg directed Walkabout (1971).

[@aunch3]

I was recommended this movie while watching a video of strange national park disappearances. I think it’s true in the sense that people go out into the woods, etc all over the world and simply vanish into thin air, never to be seen again. It’s a real phenomenon that’s just now getting attention

[@wc3935]

Ah! Yes, Missing 411 and David Paulides! I had no idea the movie would go the direction it did, but when it did I was so fascinated with how this was a Missing 411 story before David's time writing about it. Very cool!

[@2msvalkyrie529]

Thank you for a reasoned , non - sensational discussion of this subject . I tend to agree that IF Ms Lindsay had stated that it WAS a work of fiction right from the start then the impression it has made might not have been on the same magnitude. Like Edvard Munch 's " The Scream " the artist is unable to " explain" his / her production. . It just IS . And affects the viewer for reasons deep and as yet inexplicable. That is the Magic of Art.

[@thedarksidepress]

I think you're on the right path there 2msvalkyrie and summed up better than I have, that Lindsay was needed to write this story and struggled to explain its origins in any way other than the supernatural. Either that, or she was just way ahead of her time as a marketing strategist.

[@misottovoce]

I saw the film several times over the years and the haunting atmosphere and impressions stay until now. It is one of those films that once you watch it, you can not forget it.

[@celticlofts]

Picnic at Hanging Rock is a complete work of fiction. Yes we all like a good mystery but there is absolutely no record of any girls going missing at Hanging Rock before, after or during the timeline the novel is based around.. It's just a good story and that's all there is to it.

[@x-wing8785]

Yep, because the author presented the story as if it were fact, it became something of an urban legend. That's why the authenticity of the book is still being debated. The fictional story of the missing girls grew bigger than the book.

[@Kate-lk6tw]

Absolutely. And Nikki Gemmell has published a contemporary retake of the story, called Wing. It’s intense.

[@glamourdaze]

I’ve never read the novel but the film is a masterpiece. Mary Shelley would have been proud to have written this. Great video and channel. Thanks Dominique for sending a link 😊

[@thedarksidepress]

Thank you so much glamourdaze!

[@2msvalkyrie529]

Mary Shelley often explain that Frankenstein " just came to her " more or less fully formed . Almost like automatic writing..? McCartney has stated many times that many of his best known songs " just came to him "......Vincent van Gogh obsessively painted 20 or more copies of Starry Night . It's one of those paintings that you " get " right away. ..Nobody has to explain it . All these examples illustrate that Creativity has a source which remains somehow inexplicable. Is it channelling from a Higher source ...????

[@bellehunt4206]

So I’m really late to this party but I’m so happy!!! I knew I’d seen this movie, I just couldn’t remember the title and now I know!!! Thank you!!

[@marypagones6073]

The novel is true in the way some dreams are true, based in images and thoughts of life and then released from the boundaries of time and space. I feel like Miranda, Miriam, and Miss McGraw were unsuited to the worlds in which they were born and found a release. That's why Edith couldn't go with them and Irma (the rich heiress) was ultimately shut out.

[@thedarksidepress]

Interesting observation Mary. You may be on to something there with the connection between Miranda, Miriam and Miss McGraw.

[@AndriyValdensius-wi8gw]

It's certainly a mystery drama, but it has strange supernatural overtones. But it's supernatural atmosphere is not European or English but Australian ir aboriginal, just like many Stephen King stories are set on old Indian burial grounds. I've never been to Hanging Rock, but have visited Uluru and Mt Olga in N Territory. Our guide told us that Mt Olga is an aboriginal holy place and to behave respectfully. It has a strange atmosphere, peaceful and yet charged. I don't think I would want to be there at night. Picnic at Hanging Rock has that atmosphere, to me at least.

[@stitchwitch-c1q]

I love this interpretation 🌹❤️

[@stephenbradshaw9126]

Very profound statement!

[@tonybarfridge4369]

The effect it had on you attests to the reason for the writer's success and popularity

[@samanthafairweather9186]

It's a complete work of fiction, but a great story. I love the soundtrack - so hauntingly beautiful. I've recently brought a copy of the book, which contains Victorian era photos and maps of the surrounding area. The movie is the best ever made by Peter Weir. 🇭🇲

[@donnaw5995]

Such interesting facts about the rock. Why did you cut it off at the end, I was so enjoying what she had to say.

[@StrawberryFieldsNIR]

I was at a girl's boarding school in the 1970s, and yes we did the book. Then they thought it a great idea for a day trip to Hanging Rock (before the film I think). Like, was it a great idea to take a bunch of boarders from an all-girls' school to go to Hanging Rock? Were they hoping to lose some of us, or just traumatise us? A beyond bizarre decision tbh.

[@splendidx01]

Fascinating. Well done!

[@thedarksidepress]

Glad you enjoyed it splendidx01!

[@jerometrutmann8733]

Was alawys a fascinating movie, but your insight and research into the background adds to the mystique and legend of the story ... it would be fascinating what a younger audience will make of it both in written and the visual masterpiece from Peter Weir.

[@thedarksidepress]

Agreed. The recent TV series was a poor adaptation and the film, as you say, a masterpiece, still shines, nearly 50 years on from when it was made in 1975!

[@pedinurse1]

I remember the hoopla created around this movie even before it arrived at the cinema. The story, the mystery, the music which so mysterious. Joan Lindsey created this facade of mystery, which was all fake, but we didn't know it. Even the crew that filmed it made up fake stories of mysterious happenings at the Rock during filming. One such story publicized in the paper was that a camera was seen moving backwards on the set and watches stopping. We didn't know it was all lies. But it made a mysterious prelude to a great movie. In NYC the lines went around the block and people waited forever to get their tickets

[@naftalibendavid]

It used to come annually to the artsy cinema in St. Louis and each year the production stories got wilder and zanier.

[@nixops]

I read the book way back and I found it very disturbing, although I could never really figure out what disturbed me about it. It was many years before I actually saw the movie and I still felt uneasy about it, again, there is no really reason for it. Not many books have managed to do that to me. I seem to remember that it had a strange atmosphere about it. I have never reread the book, much preferring to remember being disturbed.

[@LuLu-in-a-MuuMuu]

The novel and the movie both creeped me right out. Hanging Rock is haunted to me. I've never been there, and I don't ever want to, even though I believe the book to be a work of fiction. Dame Joan Lindsay was truly a master craftsman when it comes to writing.

[@lady_peace_rose]

Whatever is going on, to my mind, "Picnic" bears a striking resemblance to the "411 Missing" stories that David Paulides hosts.

[@xr6lad]

I live in the Daylesford area and know of the Lost Children story very well. Although they wandered in to the bush. There is a 3rd memorial out at Musk on a side road(Wheelers Hill Road) not so well known. Not sure how old that is. And that is slightly closer to Hanging Rock (although only be a handful of kms). Although Hanging Rock is indeed 50 km away in certain places you can see nearby Mt Macedon in the distance.

[@thedarksidepress]

Thank you enormously for that information. I hope to visit the area one day and see these memorials for myself. Are they easy to find?

[@richardfinlayson1524]

i used to live in Daylesford, ive lived there a few times actually, great area.

[@missg.5940]

I like your stories, and please take this nicely, your voice soothingly puts me to sleep. I then finish the rest in the morning…if l can stay awake.

[@margaretfyffe7252]

Brilliant film. Brilliant novel. 🤗

[@samanthab1923]

Remember renting it when it came out. We referred to it as Hanging at Picnic Rock. 😊

[@tatata1543]

There is no mystery, it’s completely fictitious.

[@TheMardi45]

Joan Lindsay was a student at Clyde Boarding School, at Woodend, as were others in her family. It is purely fictitious.

[@bwines16]

Just because it’s fiction doesn’t mean it’s not a mystery. Be for real.

[@tatata1543]

@ it’s a fictitious mystery. Glad we agree.

[@barbaracameron8292]

Never read the book but the film was totally boring.

[@Mamadukee1]

I disagree. I thought the film was wonderful !!!!!😊🇬🇧

[@haydenwittig8877]

The film was about Europeans in Australia, Joan said the story came to her in a dream over many nights the story is a classic she had a fascination with time and the past particular a book called A TIME WITHOUT CLOCKS gives insight to the story a book later on then Peter Weir came across it the perfect movie.

[@thedarksidepress]

I haven't read Joan's autobiography "Time Without Clocks" which was actually written before "Picnic". Have you read it Hayden? Any insights from it?

[@haydenwittig8877]

@@thedarksidepress I dont sadly but its hard to find but i believe this is part of the answer.

[@Ciara1594]

This is like what happened continuously to Daphne du Maurier. In her novel "Rebecca" we never find out what the second Mrs. de Winter's name is, except that Maxim de Winter says it's a "lovely name". But ever since the publication of "Rebecca" people would write and ask du Maurier what was the second wife's name. It really ticked her off. But I think she made have had an idea that people would wonder about that otherwise why make it a mystery? So for the author of "A Picnic at Hanging Rock" she would know going in that she'd be asked the question, "Is your story real?" 🤷

[@mijiyoon5575]

Luv that outro interview w / *Joan Lindsay*

[@Anastashya]

Thank you. Very interesting video 💕. I doubt we’ll ever know the absolute truth but my intuition says it’s part fiction and part fact. 🤷‍♀️

[@legolads1732]

The young lad in the movie trying to save the girls was actor John Jarratt. 40 years later John was in another classic Australian movie called Wolf Creek. If you haven't seen that one check it out. It's nothing like Picnic at Hanging Rock though. More like murder in the outback kind of thing.

[@bbb-k6v]

Some people believe it actually happened. It didn’t

[@a.m11558]

Yeah, I had always been told that it happened and just assumed it was real until relatively recently.

[@personofearth5076]

I don't believe it either.

[@2msvalkyrie529]

I admit I was one of them !! I even argued with an Aussie that it DID actually happen...!!

[@christyler975]

Super research. Thank you

[@lawrencenodarse3090]

Why would everyone in the story have been long dead in 1967? They were teenage girls in 1900, and women generally live longer than men. They would have been in their early to mid 80s. I think easily half of would have been still living.

[@thedarksidepress]

That's a very interesting question @lawrencenodarse3090 and you're absolutely right. I don't recall the ages of the girls in the book but if we say 15 then when Lindsay was writing, they would be 80. Not an impossible age to reach. So did she know something perhaps? That the incident in the story took place much earlier than 1900? That's my suggestion in the video.

[@Aerialgrrl]

Because life expectancy *was* shorter when Lindsay wrote the novels in the late 60s. It was 70 on average; it's increased a lot since then - especially for women, as you mention - but it's such a great line anyway.

[@stephenchappell7512]

@Aerialgrrl Life expectancy has not been increasing for 30/40 years with the myth of it being so due to governments wishing to cutback and do away with state pensions

[@Dan_Ben_Michael]

⁠@@Aerialgrrl Higher infant mortality rates back then lowered the average life expectancy age. It’s not like living until one’s 80’s or 90’s was unheard of throughout history, but because of poor pre and post-natal care there was a lot more babies and toddlers dying so that skews the figures somewhat. It’s true that with modern medicine people are living longer, but not dramatically so as you suggest.

[@elizabethroberts6215]

……two friends’ took me to Hanging Rock, where we’d a picnic, & spent time walking around it, & scrambling over various rocks. Certainly wouldn’t want to be lost there at night. The Aussie bush is beautiful, but scary………

[@justaminute3111]

Really? It is surrounded by FARMS. Mount Macedon is actually in the bush.

[@alantheinquirer7658]

In the end, she did what authors do ... take an incident as a basis, changing the names and genders of the missing, and changes the setting, to a girls school (of her memories) and using the 'mysterious' Hanging Rock. In the end it's fiction but using elements of fact.

[@dustydo8048]

I went to an all girls school in Adelaide and they would play this movie before camp. I assume to stop us from wanting to wander off 😂

[@bridgwll]

What school?

[@Igaveuponhavinggoodthings]

Although being born here in Brisbane, Queensland like Anne Louise Lambert I’d heard of the film for a while, I probably didn’t see it for the first time until 2004. And it oddly wouldn’t leave my subconscious for a number of years. It was 2008 and I kept hearing Ascent Music in my head until I decided I simply had to check out Hanging Rock for myself and I did that year. When I was trying to break into acting in 2015 I heard about John Jarratt coming to Gold Coast to chat about a new movie and I ended up going, I got a photo with him but I was too shy to mention being a Picnic fan at all. And oddly that was the year the film turned 40 and I quite liked the effort National Film and Sound Archive went to with Peter Weir to celebrate this online. In 2018 I decided to share the soundtrack with KZbin, using any pieces of music from the film available. And it’s still there across my channels in a playlist, it amazes me how wonderfully popular the music is today.

[@georgeedward1226]

Like most great art, the novel is a collection of influences from the artist's life. You will never get one single answer to it.

[@dominiquedemerteuil]

Brilliant video!

[@thedarksidepress]

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@danielepetrucci5274]

There are many people involved in this mystery but I think we tend to underestimate the role played by Edith. Edith was the only one back from the trip to the rock and even though she does not remember... she does remember many things. And the mystery actually revolves around what Edith tells us. Edith testifies that nobody was ill or injured on the rock. She also admits, that she did not meet any person during her stroll at the rock. And even more important she is the only one who saw Miss McCraw climbing the rock "without le pantalon". From what Edith says we find out that no accident or abuse occurred on the rock. And we have to look somewhere else to find an explication. Moreover, we can wonder why of all the girls it is the chubby lazy petulant Edith to follow her comrades up to the rock on a hot summer afternoon. My theory is that Edith feels too. She feels the force the rock emanates and she is intrigued by it. But as in the theory of magnets, she, unlike her companions is not attracted but repelled and terrified by that force. "No Miranda, no up there, come back". Last but not least in her chat with the policeman, she says the only thing she could remember while descending the rock was "that nasty pink cloud". Again, another evidence, that the Nature plays a role on the destiny of the girls

[@thedarksidepress]

Very insightful Daniele. Thanks for your comment.

[@evamosbauer2865]

I like others don't believe Joan Lindsay came by this story through dreams ,she gives a hint that the story might be true ,as the characters are long gone ,I have always felt she waited till their was no one alive, that could stop her from writing this book. as the people in her book were indeed real .Anne Lambert tells a story while at the rock filming the movie, she wondered off to have some quiet time ,that out of the blue Joan comes towards her and put her arms around her and says O Miranda its been so long ,like she was really having a memory of the real Marinda she once knew ,Its interesting what one can find if you dig hard enough , their really was a school, that opened and something bad happened and closed its doors with 3 years of opening in the late 1800s ,two girls did indeed go missing at the rock ,and never found and one of the girls was called Miranda ,but I don't think it was a school Picnic ,the girls must gone there on their own ,but the real truth the girls were raped and killed, and its very easy for their bodies to be disposed of at hanging rock .In the book Beyond the rock by Janelle McCulloch she states she met a 100 year old lady still alive in England ,who went to Clive school in the early 1900s, and that they all knew of the girls that went missing, and that they were all told to be careful .I believe the story is truth mixed with fiction ,the school picnic never took place, but the girls did go missing ,in hence saying this Joan Lindsay book has intrigued and continues to captivate future generations to come, who does not love a mystery I know I do .

[@thedarksidepress]

Very interesting Eva. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[@evamosbauer2865]

@@thedarksidepress I forgot to say as a girl I lived near the Rock ,so hence spent many happy times up their, and yes Hanging Rock has a mystery about it ,and strange things have happen their ,so Joan Lindsay used that in her book ,every year at the rock on St Val day, they have a Picnic and People go and watch the movie on a big screen , so you see Joan Lindsay book and movie has and will live on for generations to come I love the movie .

[@thedarksidepress]

​@@evamosbauer2865 I've been to Melbourne several times but never once thought to go to the rock. It's definitely on my "to do" list now though and I've very envious that you had such a personal perspective on it. Also, I meant o add before that I agree with you that Joan waited or was triggered to write the book by the death of someone involved in the story. My theory is that this person was Miss McCraw, who died one year before Joan published the book. Coincidence?

[@evamosbauer2865]

@@thedarksidepress I agree with you as Miss McCraw was real ,and this also fact the Police constable at Woodend was Joan Lindsay uncle so the plot thickens ,but really the story of the two girls going missing at the rock is true ,just not how told in Joan Lindsay Book or Movie ,I know the rock very well their are caves the bodies of the real girls could have got rid of ,also the road next to the rock, is very weird its magnetic and strange, and stuff happens all the time ,Hanging rock really is strange and yes creepie, their is something there that is not of this world .I hope you get to visit , as for little me when the weather is beter will go and revisit my girlhood, its been a long time coming love the place and so in love with the rock .

[@thedarksidepress]

@@evamosbauer2865 Can I ask you where you heard that Joan Lindsay's uncle worked as a police constable at Woodend.? That's something that I've never heard before and if Joan Lindsay's account of Hanging Rock were an episode of the X-Files then he would surely be the "Smoking Man".

[@doggyteabreaks9362]

fwiw there was a final chapter written by Joan Lindsay but which iirc the publisher decided to leave out to enhance the mystery of what happened to the missing girls. iirc the last chapter was published during the 1990s. Basically they turned into little creatures and disappeared into a crack, Irma wanted to join them but couldn't. This is why Edith was so freaked out.

[@dawsie]

I have been there, and climbing that rock is not for the faint hearted. I had gone there planing to climb it but once there I backed out of climbing it, it was hot and the heat in Australia during the summer months can be oppressive at the best of times. No only a fool would climb that rock without the right equipment. As Aussie movies go it was very impressive, the Australian movie industry was just getting its act together so much of the movies during that time period were B class at best, nothing like the movies that came out of either Pinewood Studios or Hollywood, but once in a while the industry has managed to pull a rabbit out of its hat and “Picnic at Hanging Rock” was a brilliant movie of its time. It was a great show case that Australia knew how to make a great movie. I bought the book after seeing the movie, it felt like there was a chapter missing from the book. It was one of those moments where you felt part of the story was completely missing both in the book and the movie. Umm time to see if I can find the movie to watch again as well as to find my copy of the book and re-read.

[@amandabuckland2213]

Loved this ❤

[@peternakitch4167]

The film is a wonderful thing; as for the events being fiction or being actual - fiction. As said the records have been scoured and found nothing, if it had happened it would have news across every Australian colony and even beyond. It was to Lindsay’s advantage to encourage the mystery to sell more copy.

[@debrajones2558]

People will believe what they want to you have to admit great writing ❤❤

[@richiehoyt8487]

For years, much like this film, I thought 'Flowers in the Attic', that perennial schoolgirls' favourite by Virginia Andrews, was, as is strongly implied in the book, based on real people and events, or at the very least that the first in the series was. I cringe now when I think of my gullibility. On the other hand, though, back then, when you saw 'True Story', or even _'Based_ on a True Story' on the fly leaves of a book, or before - or for that matter, _after_ the titles of a film, you felt you could assume that at least the bare bones were true, and my feeling at the time was some annoyance that they had presumed dishonestly upon my emotions! Of course, Picnic at Hanging Rock does exactly the same thing, but being a much more Impressionistic work and the device of framing it as a 'true' story serves a different function, to wit, heightening the slight feeling of unreality, and of the film's existence in a kind of altered, dreamlike reality. As such, I'm more disposed to 'cutting it a pass', as it were...

[@Ambimom]

The movie scared the bejeezus out of me. I thought it was a true story. Thank you for setting me straight after all these years.

[@robertthomson1587]

A fascinating video! Thank you.

[@bwines16]

I had no idea this was a painting, book, and movie! I just saw the series with Natalie Dormer which I highly recommend as well!

[@terereynolds698]

I remember watching this movie, it was really good.

[@nbenefiel]

Didn’t the novel end with the missing girls turning into some kind of insects? It’s been decades since I’ve read it. The film ends with nothing. I did a ton of research. There is absolutely no evidence that this ever happened. If a group of school girls had disappeared, there would have been newspaper stories and police reports. It’s a great novel.

[@andreagriffiths3512]

Hanging Rock is a very intense place. There’s an aura about it that lingers and lurks in the back of your mind. Staying on the track, you don’t really feel it as strongly but, if you venture off the track, it hits you harder. You scramble up between the rocks and suddenly find yourself in a ‘doorway’ where the track just stops, leaving you standing in a doorway and a plummet is in front of you. It is very easy to believe that the story is real. It’s a lovely place but it’s also haunting.

[@amandaweber6315]

I've been to Mt Macedon and to where it supposedly happened at Hanging Rock. It's very eary and magical at the same time. I was enthralled but afraid at the same time. A great story either way.

[@RodericSpode]

I've seen two movies starring the actress who played Miranda, Anne-Louise Lambert. This one and The Draughtsman's Contract. Both movies are period pieces, although PaHR is set in the early 1900's in Australia, and TDC is set in England in 1694. Early in both films one or more characters disappeared, and it's possible that the characters met a violent death. In both films the viewer sees a shocking and violent murder occur near the end of the film. Both are great films, but other than these coincidental similarities, they aren't much alike.

[@specialized29er86]

Since 1972 I thought the story was based on actual facts and today I now think the story is fictional and has no through.

[@thedarksidepress]

Same here. It had me fooled for quite a few years.

[@lanarenee7135]

You might re-think this if you visit the rock and check out Anti-gravity Hill in Mt Macedon just near Hanging Rock. We visited and our car drove itself up the hill in neutral. 😉

[@thedarksidepress]

@@lanarenee7135 Perhaps the girls were pushing it :)

[@juliablom3461]

@@lanarenee7135 Woah

[@ljsoar6139]

@@lanarenee7135 There's a similar road in Ayrshire Scotland called The Electric Brae. Nothing electric or gravity defying about it though, just an optical illusion.

[@agnesricher8412]

Very interesting!

[@dominiquedemerteuil]

Very detailed, isn't it!

[@debbielicis6257]

I watched it when I was a young child and it has always haunted me but I confess, I have no idea what it is about now…lol

[@bonniecarlson608]

Love this book!

[@johnmay6090]

Barry Humphries had the story worked out years ago.I doubt YT would let me repeat what he said.

[@happierabroad]

The answer to the mystery is in the opening scene, where Miranda says that "we are in a dream within a dream" citing a famous poem. Therefore when they vanish, they are simply exiting the matrix and illusion of this world, which is a dream according to many spiritual traditions. I can't believe none of you noticed that except me. If you are a spiritual truth seeker, you are more likely to see these kind of things.

[@thedarksidepress]

There's every chance that you're right that the film is focusing on this aspect of the story. There's even a documentary about the film and it's titled 'A Dream Within A Dream'. I was however, explaining what perhaps was the truth behind the book and Joan Lindsay doesn't start that with a quote from Miranda saying "A dream with a dream". So again, there's every chance that you're right about the focus of the film and perhaps there's a chance that you're on track with what Lindsay was conceiving but I would argue that though the book ends in a spiritual way, there's a lot more going on it. Would you agree?

[@calistafalcontail]

"If you are a spiritual truth seeker, you are more likely to see these kind of things." Get over yourself. Truly spiritual people dont posess this kind of childish arrogance. And yeah we did notice like who do you think you are? The last chapter reveals everything anyway.

[@iandaniel2153]

Picnic at hanging rock and Walkabout, two Oz films by Peter Weir have their way with you when the spirits of the land are brought forward with the essence of the Wanjina to float into kadia public view.

[@davidmayhew8083]

I've seen three versions of this film. In the original release, their were ominous puffs of red smoke floating over the rock formation with ominous music. The second and third viewing, the smoke was gone. Second version was much more complex and bizarre. The third time was back to the original version without the smoke. I liked the 2nd the most. Perhaps Mr. Weir can shed some light on this very mysterious film...

[@PeterShieldsukcatstripey]

A lifetime of experiences and hard graft written into the bush.

[@JohnLee-pt5jz]

Interesting back in the day they didn't dress for the weather, they must have been very uncomfortable in what they are wearing, for summer.

[@thedarksidepress]

I have a lot of respect for those early pioneering families in Australia. Mine is one of them. And what women had to endure was horrendous!

[@belindarose8626]

Thankyou . Video is great .

[@qre268Zrtb]

I was totally in love with Miranda, she was the most beautiful Lady I had ever seen at that early age of my life.

[@belindatownshend3804]

Just a suggestion, but …it you sit back from the mic more, you will not blow out on strong sounds like “p”. This will give you a better audio for your watchers. This is really interesting but the breathy sound on the mic can be distracting

[@richardstiers9010]

When I first saw the film....way back when, I found it completely unsatisfactory. It left you hanging with no ending. No explanation. No conclusion. No reason. I had THOUGHT it was based on a true event. Seeing now, that it is completely fictitious, explains a lot.

[@happierabroad]

Aren't there thousands of people that go missing every year, in national parks and in Alaska? If so then there may be truth to this novel. According to documentaries on History Channel, thousands of people have vanished in Alaska alone in the Alaska Triangle. And of course many have gone missing in the Bermuda Triangle as we've all heard.

[@thedarksidepress]

Isn't that where Uncle Fester disappears in the first Addams Family film? I covered that in another video.

[@NicCageForPresident2024]

The national parks have disappearances constantly

[@thedarksidepress]

@@NicCageForPresident2024 But how many, get books considered to be national treasures (yes that's a Nic Cage reference), get written about them?

[@NicCageForPresident2024]

@@thedarksidepress not many because of the fact that the national parks don't keep records and they are not supposed to even talk about the disappearances

[@HelynHughes]

You do know this is Australia right?

[@bunny_smith]

Great movie. But I love Peter Wier. Gallipoli, being my favorite. The end of this story is when the newspapers were scanned to find evidence of a disappearing party of schoolgirls at the time. Had it been real, it would have been all over the papers.

[@88happiness]

As a kid I thought it was a true story 😅

[@ronaldwilliamson7963]

The main truth about the book is it probably made hanging rock s tourist attraction

[@Gnomesmakemesmile]

This film traumatized me at a very young age

[@Vejur9000]

I find it somewhat wearisome, to need to debunk this book and film. This is simply one of the greatest films ever made, based on a brilliant book. Questions?

[@suzetteperkins1089]

I want to know but I love the mystery.

[@MassiveLib]

I read somewhere that the book publisher asked her to change the ending

[@thelastperfectman4139]

True from what I understand. If you look it up online you can find the original complete ending--and it's wild, going into a whole dimensional portal sci fi direction. Publisher/editor from what I understand felt the novel was stronger leaving the fate of the missing unanswered.

[@Veronica705]

The book is a work of fiction. The author deliberately wove an air of mystery about it to boost sales.

[@janetvansky3621]

THE LAST WAVE -fascinating film by Peter Weir!

[@kerrijohnstone7588]

We find out eventually in Australia, certainly that the novel is fiction complete fiction, and the author kept that secret for many many decades

[@thedarksidepress]

Clever move by Lindsay and/or her publishers @kerrijohnstone7588 I don't know how you feel but I'm not sure whether to feel cheated or thank them for creating such a wonderful mystery.

[@calistafalcontail]

There have been incidents were people disappeared at the rock but not specificly from a girls college in that way.