Picnic at Hanging Rock is a novel by Australian author Joan Lindsay. Set in 1900, the book tells the story of a group of young women attending Appleyard College, an Australian boarding school in Macedon, Victoria. It details their mysterious disappearance and its aftermath.
On Valentine's Day, the school holds a class trip to Hanging Rock, a notable geologic formation. The trip is led by the school's headmistress, Mrs. Appleyard. Four girls, Miranda, Edith, Irma, and Marion, split off from the main group to explore the mountains. They are particularly drawn to a strange monolith. They are followed by their math teacher, Miss McGraw. Later, Miranda, Irma, and Marion head off to get closer to the monolith. Edith calls out to them, but they seem to be entranced by something she cannot see. Without explanation, Edith returns to the class but has no memory of what happened to the other girls.
The girls and Miss McGraw are declared missing and there is no physical evidence or reliable eyewitness accounts from which to build a case. The rest of the novel deals with the fallout from this debacle. Girls withdraw from the school and various staff members quit their jobs as the school falls in stature. Mrs. Appleyard desperately attempts to keep the school afloat but cannot stop the onslaught of bad press. The novel concludes with Mrs. Appleyard traveling to Hanging Rock and falling to her death.
The novel was initially published in 1967 by the Australian press Cheshire Publishing. It was subsequently reprinted by Penguin in 1975. It is critically celebrated and frequently named as one of the greatest Australian novels of all time. In 2022, it was selected to be part of "The Big Jubilee Read," a reading list of Commonwealth authors compiled to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee. In 1975, the novel was made into a major feature film, directed by Peter Weir. With its moody atmosphere and dreamlike visuals, the film quickly became regarded as a classic of Australian New Wave cinema. It was also adapted into a 2018 miniseries for Amazon Prime, starring actress Natalie Dormer as Mrs. Appleyard.
