Picnic at Hanging Rock - The Truth Revealed
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- čas přidán 28. 06. 2022
- Picnic at Hanging Rock is one of Australia's great novels and many believe that it's based on true events. The author Joan Lindsay stayed quiet when asked about her source for the story but now, through exhaustive research, we can reveal how she created the tale. This is the truth about the mystery, how Joan Lindsay wrote the book and about the seminal Australian film that it spawned.
The Mulberry Hill home of Sir Daryl and Lady Joan Lindsay is open to the public and operated by The National Trust of Australia (Victoria). More information on making a visit can be found here -
www.nationaltrust.org.au/plac...
The image of the State Library of Victoria - Photo by David Iliff, is used according to License: CC BY-SA 3.0 rules as requested here -pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plik:St...
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 !
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.
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.
Interesting observation Mary. You may be on to something there with the connection between Miranda, Miriam and Miss McGraw.
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.
I love this interpretation 🌹❤️
Very profound statement!
The effect it had on you attests to the reason for the writer's success and popularity
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?
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?
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
"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".
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
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!
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 .
Very interesting Eva. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
@@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 .
@@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?
@@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 .
@@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".
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!
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.
@@thedarksidepress You don't have an Australian accent!
@@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 🤨🤨🤨🤨
Quite well done. Higher quality than most made-for-CZcams content. Thank you.
You are most welcome Guillaume.
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 😊
Thank you so much glamourdaze!
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.
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.
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.
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!
A fascinating video! Thank you.
Fascinating. Well done!
Glad you enjoyed it splendidx01!
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
Very insightful Daniele. Thanks for your comment.
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.
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.
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.
Brilliant video!
Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
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.
Very interesting!
Very detailed, isn't it!
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. 🤷♀️
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.
Isn't that where Uncle Fester disappears in the first Addams Family film? I covered that in another video.
The national parks have disappearances constantly
@@NicCageForPresident2024 But how many, get books considered to be national treasures (yes that's a Nic Cage reference), get written about them?
@@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
One curious thing about this movie is that everyone seems obsessed with Miranda. They're more worried about her than the other 2 girls.
Just my impression though, could be wrong.
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.
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?
@@thedarksidepress I dont sadly but its hard to find but i believe this is part of the answer.
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.
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!
The main truth about the book is it probably made hanging rock s tourist attraction
Yes off out for a Picnic now. You know where. 🤒
Very Funny! Do come back now Fluffy Bunny, I have other videos for you to watch 😁
Since 1972 I thought the story was based on actual facts and today I now think the story is fictional and has no through.
Same here. It had me fooled for quite a few years.
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. 😉
@@lanarenee7135 Perhaps the girls were pushing it :)
We find out eventually in Australia, certainly that the novel is fiction complete fiction, and the author kept that secret for many many decades
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.
There have been incidents were people disappeared at the rock but not specificly from a girls college in that way.
Joan Lindsay didnt want to reveal because it’d take attention away from the book if she revealed. Just like in Sopranos, fans are still going mad David Chase wont reveal what happened in the last scene, and he refuse to comment. She is also a blatant liar, she took clear inspiration from the lake bodom murders (“picnic”, one of them didn’t die, had severe memory loss) and called it a real story, which is bullshit. It’s a loose adaptation of a finnish mystery.
But she revealed it at the end. The last chapter of the book can be found online and it says what happened. As abstract and spiritual as it is.
@5:42 what is going on with their faces ?? their eyes look sinister and some of the girls look like they are suffering from a stroke with one side drooping
Gigapixel upscaling of low quality originals. Never trust AI ;)
What the Hell is wrong with their eyes?!
Image upscaling. Never trust AI!
It seems clear Joan Lindsay had some occult involvement and this would lead her to have some success as a writer. She states the story came to her in subsequent dreams. This is not natural and indicates supernatural deception. It appears to be derived from the actual disappearance of 3 boys elsewhere, indicating foul play. In the story the implication is that 3 girls disappeared inside caves on the rock, taken by demons on Valentine Day (one of their inventions). Possibly demons do inhabit cave systems there and they fantasise on it being true. Other aspects of the story also indicate demonic involvement; stopped clocks and watches, suicides etc. In the film the chubby less attractive girl was found after long repeated searching of the rock, but conveniently had no recollection of the events and couldn't speak. The implication was she had been taken but ejected, as she was battered but had no marks on her feet and had not been raped.
I mean, I see where you are coming from...but chill out a bit maybe. Prophets of the Bible had spiritual dreams too. I am christian and I dream every night and can remember it. Some dreams have been very revealing and helpful to me after I asked God for clarity. Most dreams are just our mind processing things, but some arent. Our subconscious/consciousness is connected to the divine and not everything we dream about is evil or meant to deceit us. In the last chapter of the book, its explained what happened. I just always wondered about Miranda and Miss McCraw. They both behaved weird right from the start. Like they were channeling infos from somewhere else. Miranda knew she would not come back and she was leading the group.
@@calistafalcontail The film makers wanted it to be true so much they even added the deceptive text at the start, that it was a true story. But it all smacks of in-the-face demonic involvement without subtlety. Typical Aussie production. Yet the whole thing could be just made up, including the dreams statement. I never read the book so don't know how much the film departed from it also.Unsolved mysteries are compelling but frustrating at the same time, yet ensures ongoing interest.
@12:11 she looks like Jeremy Clarkson in Drag - Jezza Bella lool
They don't just vanish without a trace
I'm sorry but I don't understand your comment Bunny. I didn't say in the video that they disappeared without a trace. So I'm not sure what your comment is in reference to. Could you elaborate please?
@@thedarksidepress hello my guess or questions i was thinking that one minute they are there the next they are gone the moment they all went up to the rock's
@@bunnystuart3808 I don't want to give too much of the book away but the suggestion is that they may still be there :)
@@thedarksidepress you could be right
Read the last chapter of the book and then you know what happened. The last chapter was hold back a while but she released it later. At first she thought it might take away to much from the mystery but I am happy she published it. I loved the story without knowing too alot.
I possess an unread 70s penguin edition. I am open to offers.
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.
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?
"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.
The girls went to the Black Lodge
@mattgilbert7347 I can totally see a Picnic/Twin Peaks spin-off series. You're onto something there. Get writing. Or I will!
@@thedarksidepress The race is on!
Nobody tell Alan Moore. He'd totally rip the idea off us both.
@@thedarksidepress
Laura (crying out): "Miraandaaaa?'
Miranda (distantly, replying): "Laaauraaa?"
There's my opening.
@@thedarksidepress
Here's the working title
"Backstage in the Secret Spaces"
@@mattgilbert7347 verry funny :)
I have just recently watched the movie and I don't know what all the fuss is about ? I think we've made way better movies than that about similar topics
Maybe James but in the video, I'm talking about the book on which the film is based. There's also the TV series as well, don't forget, which I didn't use any footage from so as not to confuse.
@@thedarksidepress OK fair enough but the movie was boring as batshit as far as I'm concerned so I'm sure the book would be similar. Les Patterson was right they should have left it to him
@@James-kv6kb Haha! I'd love to see a Les Patterson version of Picnic!
@@thedarksidepress it's a whole interview but give me 5 minutes, you will piss yourself laughing
@@thedarksidepress czcams.com/video/nULFMp4jKBo/video.html the whole interview is hilarious but if you go for 3 minutes 40 you will love it
Lovely story, but this is 100% fiction. This has not happened.
I totally agree! Willing suspension of disbelief is the technical term for it I think. People want to believe that it's real.
But stuff like that happens all around the world. 411 Cases are THIS strange.
So it was all a scam Simple research easily reveals the story is entirely fiction I never understood why there is or was any mystery
People simply wanted to believe that it was true. That's more the mystery to unravel, why people wanted it to be real events.
If it were true, it would have made worldwide headlines at the time.
There was no truth revealed! Click bait
LetsBeHonest I'm sorry that you feel that way. I thought I made it pretty clear what the truth was and explained or revealed it between 10.30 and 11.50 of the video.
@@thedarksidepress
Joan Lindsay, was not able to tell the truth, right though the whole period of the making of a film
One of my favourite Films of All time. 🪷🩷. 🎼
On a loop in my twenties.
And cracking soundtrack @. 🩷🩷🩷 Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto. ( # movement 2 )
Thank You @ 💘💘💘
Dark Side. 🤫
Gheorghe Zamfir's haunting flute is definitely one of the highlights. An odd choice you might think at first, being set in the Australian bush, but perhaps Peter Weir was wanting something mythological with the pan pipes? What do you think?
A lifetime of experiences and hard graft written into the bush.
A dream within a dream - the rock embracing her children.