Case file · Folklore / legend
Picnic at Hanging Rock: fiction vs fact
Joan Lindsay's 1967 novel tells of schoolgirls and a teacher vanishing at Hanging Rock on Valentine's Day 1900. Many readers believe it really happened.
1967 CE · -37.33, 144.59 · status: legend
The account
Lindsay deliberately left the question open, and Peter Weir's 1975 film deepened the belief. Hanging Rock, a volcanic formation sacred to the Wurundjeri, Taungurung and Dja Dja Wurrung peoples, now draws visitors partly because of the legend.
The sceptical view
No newspaper, school or police record of any such disappearance exists, and 14 February 1900 was a Wednesday, not the Saturday of the book.