The faërie realm of Joan Lindsay's Picnic at Hanging Rock

Joan Lindsay, circa 1922.

Contents

Origins, ancient & modern
The truth of the disappearance
The Secret of Hanging Rock
Faërie realm
The Fairy Crab
The 2018 TV series
Joan Lindsay and time
A dream within a dream
Martin Sharp, Botticelli & Tchaikovsky
Miranda Must Go!
The End
Appendix 1: Chronology
Appendix 2: Historical research
References
Acknowledgements

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Abstract: The mystery at the heart of Australian author Joan Lindsay's 1967 novel Picnic at Hanging Rock, the 1975 film version by director Peter Weir, and the 2018 television series featuring Natalie Dormer, can only be understood, and partially solved, when consideration is given to the faërie realm context in which the narrative was originally set by the author. The faërie realm is a dimension wherein space and time differ from the normal, earthly reality. Faërie is an English term referring to mythical or real creatures, elementals, and sentient beings that may have supernatural powers and usually occupy a dimension not aligned with the human reality but, at times, overlapping. Encounters can be short or long, multidimensional, serendipitous or planned, fruitful or frightening, and incidental or fateful, as was the case in Joan Lindsay's novel. Due to a reticence on the part of the Australian audience, or rather, ignorance in regard to this largely British perspective, the trippy final chapter of Lindsay's original 1966 manuscript was deleted by the publisher prior to publication of the novel at the end of the following year. That expunged chapter highlighted, and expanded upon, the faërie context and, in part, the mysterious disappearance of the three schoolgirls and their teacher. Lindsay, who died in 1984, redressed the deletion by putting in place during 1972 a process whereby it would see the light of day upon her passing. This took place in 1987, though it has been largely ignored since then. The present article highlights the impact of the decision to delete the final chapter, outlines its content, and discusses Joan Lindsay's lifelong engagement with faërie and aspects of the paranormal. It also recommends the publication of an updated version of Picnic at Hanging Rock which incorporates the deleted final chapter, as originally intended by the author.

Editorial Notes

Whilst the present author believes in the existence of the faërie realm, it is not necessary for the reader to hold a similar view in order to understand, appreciate or accept the arguments and conclusions presented herein. A YouTube video of an earlier version of this article is available here. Quotes are from Picnic at Hanging Rock (Lindsay 1967) unless otherwise indicated. Page number citations from the 1967 edition of Picnic at Hanging Rock - appearing as, for example, [115] in brackets - are taken from the searchable Google Books online edition. Throughout this text, the original 16th century spelling faërie is favoured, though elsewhere fay, fairy or faerie are utilised within their broadest context.

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Joan Lindsay & Picnic at Hanging Rock

I write sitting on the floor, surrounded by sheets of paper in a sort of fairy ring. It’s bliss. (Lindsay 1962)

For me, who knew Mount Macedon and Hanging Rock, the story is entirely true. (Lindsay 1967)

I can only say that for me, fact and fiction are closely allied. Some of it really happened, and some of it didn't. And to me, it all happened. It was all terribly true for me. (Lindsay1974)

A great deal of my novel is based on things I've done, and seen, and know. To me it all happened. It was all terribly real. (Lindsay 1977)

I can't tell you whether the story is fact or fiction, or both. But a lot of very strange things have happened in the area of Hanging Rock, things that have no logical explanation. (Lindsay [1985])

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1. Origins, ancient & modern

How does one explain the sudden disappearance, and/or reappearance, of a thing or person, perhaps before one's very own eyes? Is it simply a magic trick, or something more otherworldly and perhaps even sinister? And what if that thing or person disappears and never returns? Where does it go? And if it, or they, should reappear a day, a week, a month, or years later, with no explanation and no memory of what has taken place in the interim, what then? This couldn't possibly happen, could it? Isn't it the stuff of fantasy and fairy tales?

In fact, just such a scenario applies to one of the most famous works of Australian fiction, namely Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay (1896-1984). Written during the southern winter of 1966, it was published at the end of the following year, and launched in Melbourne by the former Australian Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies. Some contemporary advertisements wrongly listed it under the biography category, and its precise status remains controversial. Though met with positive reviews upon initial publication, the book was slow to sell until a cinematic adaptation was released in 1975. Thereafter sales soared, apparently reaching 11 million copies, or readers, worldwide by 1993, with assistance from movie tie-ins, radio serialisation, hardback and paperback releases, and an Australian illustrated edition (Bushell 1993). At present it remains 'in print', alongside ebook and audiobook editions. Stage versions have appeared, alongside an Italian ballet in 2012, a BBC radio play, and a contemporary film set on a beach with similar themes (Shamas 1988, Wright 2015, Wright 2017). The online presence in the new millennium is significant, through social media outlets such as YouTube, Instagram and streaming services, all of which provide access to, and commentary on, Picnic at Hanging Rock in all its manifestations. During 2023 a restored edition, of both the original 116 minute version and the later, shortened, director's cut of 104 minutes, was issued on the high quality 4K digital format. The story lives on, both in physical forms, and the conscious mind of many.

Following the publication of the book at the end of 1967, Lindsay encountered unwanted fame, leading to a seemingly never-ending barrage of questions concerning the mysterious disappearances, and its possible historical basis. The reason for this is the fact that Picnic at Hanging Rock was skillfully presented by the author within the first chapter as a chronicle, the dictionary definition of which is a factual written account of important or historical events in the order of their occurrence. In this case it concerned three schoolgirls and a teacher who mysteriously disappear whilst on an excursion to a local geological landmark and picnic site in regional Victoria, Australia - the ominous and ever mysterious Hanging Rock.

Hanging Rock @ sunset.

Of the original four, three are never seen again, and no evidence ever found, or presented by the author, which points to their true fate. Readers are faced with an unsolved, and seemingly unsolvable, mystery - a decision which to some degree Lindsay came to regret, but was never publically apologetic about. The origins of Lindsay's dilemma in creating the work and living with the consequences are just as mysterious as that of the fictional disappearances at Hanging Rock, and of the location itself. People use numerous terms to try to describe the strange, often malevolent feelings they encounter there. But what are they precisely, and what is their origin? Within the book, and its deleted final chapter, Joan Lindsay provides a possible, if partial, answer. To appreciate that answer, we need to step back in time, back to the beginning of the Rock itself.

Geologically speaking, Hanging Rock is a 105 metre high mamelon formation composed of trachyte - rock formed as a result of a volcanic eruption which took place some 6.25 million years ago. Science has also identified a strange magnetic field present in and around the formation, related to its distinct geology and placement within the landscape (Wilkes 2018).

As with many similar geographical features and mountainous areas across the country, Hanging Rock is of special significance to the local Aboriginal people - the Wurundjeri - who, as part of Australia's First Nations people, have inhabited the continent for more than 130,000 years, at least according to recent scientific data. Specific archaeological information from the region goes back some 26,000 years. In fact, the Dreamtime tells us that Aboriginal people have been present in Australia since time immemorial, as part of the evolution of humankind. This is likely true, though it may be eons before science is able to provide supportive evidence. It has already noted the existence of humanoid species 1.1 million years ago in the nearby Indonesian archipelago.

Hanging Rock provided local First Nations peoples with a readily identifiable landmark on an otherwise flattish landscape, in a similar vein to the more famous Uluru (Ayres Rock) of Central Australia. It was traditionally utilized for meetings, story-telling, and ceremonies such as corroborees and male initiation, with the last of the latter said to have taken place in 1851 (Cahill 2017). The Rock has long been a significant element of local Indigenous peoples' relationship with Country.

Dryden's Rock near Mount Macedon, The Illustrated Melbourne Post, 25 January 1865 / Illustrated Sydney News, 16 February 1867 / Australian Town and Country Journal, 27 November 1875.

Most of these cultural events were apparently carried out on its lower, forested sections and around the base. The upper part, distinguished by rugged, weather-worn, round-tipped, volcanic monoliths - a variant on the hexagonal basalt columns of Ireland's more ancient Giant's Causeway - was a place of spirits and dark "unfinished business" which saw the local Aborigines and visitors generally shy away from sections of it, especially during the hours between sunset and sunrise (McCulloch 2018b). Post-invasion (1788) events resulted in the decimation of local Indigenous populations and the loss of much of the cultural heritage associated with the site. Hanging Rock's ongoing status, including its desecration as an Aboriginal sacred site, was addressed in a 2017 article, which also made reference to Joan Lindsay's work:

Hanging Rock itself was a dividing point for four Aboriginal territories .... it sits at the very centre of historically and culturally valuable Indigenous land. Nor is it recognised that the outcrop held such a degree of power to the local people – established tribes who had lived in the area for more than 26,000 years – that they refused to climb it. And, perhaps predictably, it is almost never acknowledged as a site of atrocities committed by white settlers, with introduced diseases such as smallpox ravaging the local population... That [Hanging Rock] has been so desecrated by a book routinely described as one of Australia’s best isn’t some minor fib – it is one tragedy among many, all of them obscured by a weepy schoolgirl named Miranda and her waif-like, wearisome friends. (Earp 2017)

Whilst the author therein criticises the impact of Lindsay's book on local Aboriginal cultural heritage, no information is provided to address the issue of why an eeriness is present, and almost invariably encountered, by Indigenous and non-Indigenous visitors. Another author recently identified the lack of traditional stories about Hanging Rock, despite being associated over an extensive period with three tribal groups - the Woi Wurrung (Wurundjeri), the Dja Dja Wurrung and the Taungurung (Roe 2022). This loss of traditional story-telling regarding the Mount Macedon and Hanging Rock region is regrettable, resulting as it does from the decimation of the local tribes following the previously noted British invasion of 1788.

Mount Macedon, Woodend and Hanging Rock landscape, oriented with north facing east. Source: Google Maps, 2 August 2023.

In 1837 Hanging Rock was named Mount Diogenes by the colonial Surveyor General T.L. Mitchell, as he travelled from Melbourne to Sydney. A subsequent newspaper report of the journey reported the following in regard to the nearby Mount Macedon which was located just 8 kilometres south of Hanging Rock:

A trusted member of [Major T.L. Mitchell's] party was a Parramatta black named "Piper," the only one, it is said, who ascended Mount Macedon. From my knowledge of the Aboriginals, I expect Piper went and had a good sleep in the bush and then returned and told the Major fairy tales. (The Vagabond 1893)

Within this rather sarcastic comment are to be found some significant references. We know that Mitchell was interested in Indigenous "fairy tales", also known to the British by terms such as myths and legends and now often revealed as significant Dreaming stories. He recorded a number in his note books, some of which later saw it through to publication. Mitchell was also interested in local languages and allocated Indigenous names to many prominent geographical landmarks and features, such as the Murrumbidgee river. He used Greek and English terms as well, resulting in the Diogenes reference for the mount, named after the famous philosopher. It is intriguing to consider whether Mitchell recorded any stories told to Piper by the local people relating to the Mount Macedon and Hanging Rock area during his brief visit in 1837. As noted above, no such stories have subsequently been made public.

Part of the land around Hanging Rock was occupied in 1837 by Edward Dryden, who was later, along with others such as William Adams, granted title. Of course, no recognition or consideration of Aboriginal title, ownership or prior possession was given by the invaders (Gill 2013). By the 1860s, following the near complete disappearance of the local Indigenous population, Hanging Rock had become a popular picnic spot - a picturesque oasis amidst the sparse, dry landscape of the Australian bush. As a result, it thereafter passed into government ownership during 1884 and was made a public reserve.

The strange, ominous, mystical aspect of Hanging Rock encountered by the European settlers, and Indigenous people before them, has never been explained. Its presence is reflected in two engravings from 1855-56 featuring the monolithic rocks on the sides and top of the mountain.

Foot of Diogenes Monument: 4 miles N. from Mount Macedon, 40 miles N.N.W. from Melbourne. Source: Blandowski 1855.

This first dramatic image (illustrated above) features three Easter Island head-like monoliths with an electrical thunderstorm in the background and a cowering native in the foreground. The second image (illustrated below) is figured to look like a group of hooded acolytes attending a secret ceremony under the light of the full moon.

W. v. Blandowski, Australia, Diogenes Monument / Anneyelong looking sth towards Mount Macedon. Effect & engraving by J. Redaway & Sons, Melbourne, 1855-56. Collection: State Library of Victoria.

The artist responsible for both, William Blandowski, described the site in The Age Melbourne newspaper on 14 September 1855. Upon closer observation, we can see that he included in the second work a group of Aborigines camped on the side of the mountain, just below its upper reaches and by a large burning fire. They look up towards the full moon, naked and insignificant amidst the imposing geology.

A group of Aborigines dance by a campfire under the light of the full moon.

Variously known as Dryden's Rock or Monument, and Diogenes Monument or Mount upon being surveyed and named by Robert Hoddle during 1843-44, from the 1850s it was popularly referred to as Hanging Rock. The traditional name in the Aboriginal language, as recorded by Blandowski, reflects the darker aspects of the location:

anneyelong / ngannalong [English spelling and pronunciation] gʊn : gula : ng [phonetic depiction of the original Aboriginal word] very : bad : place [Aboriginal meaning]

The Aboriginal word gula refers to a thing (something, somewhere, or someone) malevolent, deadly, treacherous, angry or involving sorcery (Illert 2021, Organ 2022b). This, of course, is relevant to the fictional and actual mystery surrounding Hanging Rock, as these elements tie in with aspects of reality that are not part of our everyday environment, such as ghosts, godly spirits, and creatures belonging to the faërie realm.

Extra-dimensional beings in a variety of forms, long considered real and present by sections of the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities alike, can obviously inhabit physical spaces side by side, and Hanging Rock is likely one such example. The earthly faërie realm is very much associated with the natural environment and specific places such as forests and mountains which are untouched or generally isolated from human habitation, especially where the latter is dense and dangerous for faërie folk.

Conrad Martens, Mount Coolangatta, 1860.

An explanation for the presence of a non-faërie, ghostly element at Hanging Rock lies in the Aboriginal belief in an afterlife. For example, Mount Coolangatta, a similar geological feature located on the coast in New South Wales, north of Victoria, serves as a physical and mythological stairway to heaven, whereby it is believed by First Nations people that spirits of the dead travel to the top of the mountain and, upon stepping off a large stone slab there, pass on to the Indigenous equivalent of heaven, purgatory or hell (Organ 1990).

As a place of intersection between different dimensions, or realms, this seems similar to Hanging Rock, where numerous accounts over an extended period of time have spoken of a heaviness and darkness associated with the place. That otherworldly and sometimes malevolent aspect existed through to the arrival of the British in 1788, and beyond. For example, during 2023 the artist / activist and Punk Outsider Toby Zoates relayed to the present author his own eerie encounter with Hanging Rock in 1962:

I got myself lost at Hanging Rock when I was about 12, in 1962. Seriously, I shat my pants, those caves are eerie. They used to hold Easter horse races below the rocks and my parents were crazy for it. I went exploring the rocks and got lost for several hours. I actually tried to climb down the sheer rock face in an attempt at escape but gave up after about 7 ft down, as I surely would have fallen and died. I totally freaked out, felt ancient spirits haunting me, and cried my heart out. The spirits finally relented and led me through the labyrinth into the sunlight and freedom. To this day I recall the terror and spookiness. (Zoates 2023)

Continuing through to the present, a malevolence and otherworldly aspect remains at Hanging Rock. This is undoubtedly one of the reasons Joan Lindsay was moved to write Picnic at Hanging Rock, and why she had been drawn there since her first visit during the summer of late 1899 and early 1900, and the following year again, when aged just three, going on four. One summary of the book as published reveals the mystical aspect of the location:

A party of schoolgirls goes on a picnic on St Valentine's Day, 1900. Four of them [Edith, Miranda, Marion and Irma] leave the group to explore the Hanging Rock. One of the school mistresses [mathematics teacher Miss Greta McCraw] also wanders off after them. When they do not return in time, a search is organised. The youngest girl [Edith] emerges from the hillside in hysterics, but can recall almost nothing. Of the other three girls and the mistress there is no trace. A week later, one of the girls [Irma] is found on the Rock with a few cuts and bruises on her hands and face, but her bare feet unmarked and no memory of where she has been (Lindsay, Taylor & Rousseau 1987).

It should be noted that Lindsay's chronology throughout the book indicates events took place during 1900. For example, St Valentine's Day is given as Saturday, 14 February 1900. However, it was actually Wednesday that year. The timeline throughout the book is correct for the year 1903. This may have been an accident on the part of the author, or done purposefully, though for what reason is not known. Perhaps it ties in with Lindsay's disregard for the traditional aspects of time that modern society adhere to. Or she may simply have wanted Friday to fall on the 13th of February, to tie in with the traditionally dark, mystical aspects of that day.

Picnic at Hanging Rock was written in a frenzy over a single week sometime during the southern winter (?July-August) of 1966, in close association with a series of connected, lucid dreams and sleepless nights for Joan Lindsay. We have a number of first- and second-hand accounts of the writing process. One is by the director of the 1975 film, Peter Weir:

I think I did say at some time that I thought that Lady Lindsay had been somewhat possessed when she wrote this, just from what she told me, when she sat down and it just poured out. (Peter Weir 2004)

At the time of writing she would keep her housekeeper Rae updated on its progress:

She really did dream the sequence of chapters ..... (McCulloch 2017b)

The author herself recorded a number of accounts, with minor variations between them:

Well now, Picnic at Hanging Rock really was an experience to write, because I was just impossible when I was writing it. I know. I just sort of thought about it all night long. I think a great many writers, I understand, I think Patrick White was the same, not that I'm comparing myself to him, but I think a lot of them lay awake at night and think about what they are going to write next day. I used to write half of that book in my head. I'm talking about Picnic now. And in the morning I would go straight up to a little room upstairs, sit on the floor, papers all around me, like that, and just write like a demon, because I knew exactly what was going to happen from the night before. It was almost as if it was before me in a kind of, it was almost like a film. When I wrote it I wasn't thinking of a film, but it was a very visual experience for me.... [As regards the mystery] I can only say for me, fact and fiction are so closely allied, some of it really happened and some of it didn't. And to me it all happened; it was all terribly true for me. (Joan Lindsay 1974)

I just saw it all passing before my eyes, usually lying in bed at night. When I woke up in the morning I knew exactly what the next bit was going to be. I never had any trouble about what was going to happen. I just knew. (Joan Lindsay 2004)

Lindsay was almost seventy at the time of writing Picnic at Hanging Rock, and stated in the draft of the book's Foreward that the narrative was based on an actual event, or events, though with a caveat:

Foreward. Whether Picnic at Hanging Rock is Fact or Fiction, or both, 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 now long since dead, it hardly seems important, seeing that we live in an age when Fact is often harder to swallow than Fiction. (Lindsay 1967, McCulloch 2017 a & b)

She also provided, within the published chapter 17 - therein the final chapter - what was claimed to be evidence in the form of a newspaper report from 1913. However, none of this was true. Well, that's not entirely true either, for the book, despite supposedly being a work of pure fiction, is based not only on the real and truthful experience of the aforementioned dreams, but also, and more loosely, around events which took place during the life of the author, or were otherwise historic. For example, we know the following:

Miss McCraw of the book was based on an actual teacher by that name, as were Marion, Mr Hussey and Doctor Mackenzie based on real people;
The school picnic at Hanging Rock was based on events connected with Lindsay's own schooling, though she did not apparently participate in such an event;
Lindsay visited Hanging Rock on a number of occasions with her family during her childhood and later;
The mysterious disappearance, and sometime reappearance, of children in the bush did occur in Victoria during the nineteenth century, most famously in the case of Clara Crosbie / Crosby who went missing for two weeks during 1885;
Lindsay had psychic abilities and was referred to as a mystic by her friends, including film director Peter Weir;
Lindsay believed in, and experienced, the concept of time as fluid - she saw part, present and future events;
Lindsay was precognitive, frequently experiencing premonitions;
Clocks, wrist watches and machines stopped in Lindsay's presence;
Lindsay could see things (faërie?) that other people could not see, especially in the bush landscape, and including figures dressed in black at night;
Lindsay could communicate with beings, creatures and things that were not of the earthly dimension;
The 'fictional' account of a more mystical nature included in the original manuscript, and in which individuals had encounters with strange creatures or spirits, seen and unseen, did take place, both in fact and fiction;
During a visit to Hanging Rock with her friend Colin Caldwell in 1963, half way up he left her alone, to, as he later recalled, .... feel that haunted thing... She always had rather unusual abilities and could sense things in the landscape that others couldn't....
Lindsay's biographer noted: It was clear that Lindsay was interested in Spiritualism, and longed for some spiritual dimension in her life....
Lindsay told artist Martin Sharp that she had ... an experience on Hanging Rock when she was a very young girl and that it had profoundly affected her (Edward 2017). The specific nature of the experience is not known, but can be assumed to relate in some way to what is presented in the book.

All of this lies at the heart of the problem with Picnic at Hanging Rock - it is a frustratingly unsolved mystery and, at the same time, a consummate amalgamation of fact and fiction by a skilled writer, much as so many others have done, based on real events and events that never happened, but could have, and perhaps even did. J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is a perfect example of a similar fantasy fiction grounded in historical, and mythological / faërie reality, with his Elves being the most obvious inclusion. Written between 1937-48 in what that author said was largely an unconscious process - as though he was just the mere instrument of some unknown intelligence - it can also be seen to be based on actual incidences in Tolkien's life, such as his military service during World War I, on previously published mythologies from Great Britain and Europe, and on historical events, all presented in a totally new and believable, though medieval context - a secondary world, as his son Christopher put it. It was fantasy fiction at its finest. Picnic at Hanging Rock is also that, arising in part out of the subconscious, lucid dreaming of Australian Joan Lindsay. It is a dream within a dream, to quote Edgar Allan Poe, the American poet and Gothic mystery writer.

Like Tolkien's masterwork, Picnic at Hanging Rock was subsequently made into an internationally successful feature film. Directed by Peter Weir, and released in 1975, he was aware of this element, and opened his film with that precise phrase from Poe's poem:

What we see and what we seem are but a dream - a dream within a dream (Poe 1850 / Green 1975).

The placement of those words at that point was utilised by the director to open a doorway for the viewer to step through into a realm which, though it may have felt real and historic, was also of a different, dream-like dimension. The movie version of Picnic at Hanging Rock provided its audience with a beautiful, sensual, inexplicable experience of events directly taken from the book. It is now recognised internationally as a classic of the genre, for its skillful production and intriguing narrative, despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that it ends somewhat frustratingly in an unsolved, and seemingly unsolvable, mystery. The 2018 television series is more mystical, other worldly, not because it aimed to replicate Weir's film, but because they were features of the book to which the scriptwriter sought to adhere more closely to.

Numerous reviews and commentaries continue to appear in print and online, lauding the work in its various forms and breaking down themes and motifs presented therein, either real or perceived. One recent example is that by the deepfocuslens YouTube channel, wherein the narrator highlights the element of fear in Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock, which she considers one of the top five international films of the 1970s. At one point she states:

There is, to me, almost nothing more terrifying than existing one moment, and then the next you're gone, and there's no explanation, no one can find you. Loved ones look and look and look, and you're just gone (deepfocuslens 2022).

Picnic at Hanging Rock - movie review, deepfocuslens, YouTube, 8 February 2022, duration: 19.17 minutes.

As in the book, the YouTuber does not explain such a disappearance or make mention of the faërie realm. Whatever the actual circumstances of the disappearance, self inflicted or malevolent, to the reader it is nevertheless tragic for those left behind, despite the societal impacts prevailing over the familial in Lindsay's narrative. For example, the author excludes any actual description, or reference to, the impact of the disappearances on the families of Miranda, Marion and Miss McCraw. The horrified and immediate reaction of Irma Leopold's parents, though distant, is clearly outlined, as is the action taken to remove her from Appleyard College post haste. Early in the book it was noted that Miranda's father had sent her a loving St. Valentine's Day card, featuring Baby Jonnie's home-grown cupid and a row of loving kisses.

St Valentine's Day cards, featuring cupid, early 1900s.

The winged cupid featuring in cards from the Edwardian era (early 1900s) is very fairy-like, though based on Eros, the male Greek god of love. Valentine's Day was always special to Joan Lindsay. In 1912 she wrote a poem entitled Your Valentine, and during 1930 published a piece of fantastical prose in which she posited St Valentine coming down to earth and being surprised that the card-based celebrations of the Edwardian era were no longer popular (Lindsay 1930, O'Neil 2009b). As a result, he took a bodily form, went into the Sydney David Jones store, and ordered a pair of silk stockings ...for a very pretty young lady with wings.

Later in the book we are informed of Mrs Appleyard's dread of receiving a response from Miranda's family in Queensland to the loss of their beloved daughter. That such a shocking, inexplicable event should lie at the heart of Picnic at Hanging Rock is intriguing, remembering that it occurs in chapter 3 of the book and the remainder is concerned with the consequences, spreading as they do, tentacle-like, out through society and even beyond time to the present day.

There are numerous characters featured in Picnic at Hanging Rock, most notably the 57 year old headmistress Mrs Appleyard, and the youngest student, 13 year old orphan Sara Waybourne. The child is subsequently murdered by Appleyard, following an extended period of physical and mental abuse. It had been varoously suggested that Sara was driven to suicide as a result of an unrequited love for Miranda. However, a close reading of what Lindsay wrote reveals this to be false. It is rejected in light of Appleyard's lie to Mademoiselle de Poitiers about Sara's disappearance (i.e., that she was secreted away by her guardian) and her own subsequent suicide by jumping off Hanging Rock upon the realisation that her action was about to be found out by both the police and Sara's guardian.

In the following discussion we are only concerned with the fate of the five involved in the disappearance, and specifically the three who never return:

Miranda - an Appleyard College senior, its most popular student, and perhaps most beautiful, being a tall pale girl with straight yellow hair, aged 18. She leads the group up Hanging Rock and remains lost.
Marion Quade - the cleverest student, aged 17. Remains lost.
Irma Leopold - the wealthiest student, small and with black, curly hair, also 17. Found by Michael and Albert on Hanging Rock a week after disappearing.
Edith Horton - the youngest student, plump, aged 14. She is the first to leave the group heading up Hanging Rock, heavily traumatised and screaming for an unknown reason.
Miss Greta McCraw - an "old maid" aged 45, mathematics teacher at the college. Apparently transforms into a crab-like creature and remains lost.

Missing - Presumed Dead, poster and notice board prop from Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975). Collection: National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra.

Due in large part to the success of the film, the idea of the supposed factual nature of the disappearance of the schoolgirls and their teacher has become an entrenched part of Australian folklore. To this day the question is asked, especially by Victorians: What is the truth behind the mystery of Hanging Rock? What happened to the schoolgirls? Such questions are posed as though there remains an actual murder mystery, rather than arising from a mere work of fantasy fiction, or fairy tale. This is due to the skill of Lindsay in portraying the period, presenting the events, and defining the characters, and of course to Peter Weir and his team in bringing it all to public notice through the 1975 cinematic version. A six-part television series retelling the story in greater detail, and released in 2018, reinforced the emphasis on mystery previously created by Lindsay and Weir, though included more of the mystical aspects contained within the text. This latter version is discussed further below.

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Fred McCubbin, The Lost Child, 1886, National Gallery of Victoria.

2. The truth of the disappearance

Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping
than you can understand.
(The Stolen Child, W.B. Yeats 1886)

'Don't worry about us, Mam'selle dear,' smiled Miranda. 'We shall only be gone a very little while.' .....

Why do we have to understand everything? There are mysterious things that will never have a proper, factual explanation..... (Joan Lindsay)

In 1967 the original ending (chapter 18) of Picnic at Hanging Rock, which partially explained the disappearance of the schoolgirls and teacher, was deleted from the manuscript by the publishers, on the advice of junior editor Sandra Forbes. Apparently the publisher eventually garnered the support of Joan Lindsay in the decision, though later events would suggest this was begrudgingly given at the time and later pulled back. Why the deletion? Because, in the opinion of the present author, that chapter delved into the mystical, and little understood locally, faërie realm, a dimension where space and time is not as we know it. Within the deleted chapter Lindsay refers to it as a plane of common experience, wherein the three schoolgirls are drawn together with Miss McCraw's changeling, or doppelganger.

That chapter, and by extension the entire work, was in hindsight, and in many ways, of its time - 1966 - trippy .... like a group of people under the influence of a powerful hallucinogen (Wargo 2018). Whilst Lindsay may have been tuned into the prevailing zeitgeist, just as Lewis Carroll had a century before whilst part of the radical Pre-Raphaelite movement, those at Cheshire Publishing certainly were not (Carroll 1865). They included publisher Frank Cheshire, publishing director Frank Fabyini, senior editor John Hooker and junior editor Sandra Forbes. The latter write of seeking to enhance the ambiguity of the original manuscript. They were obviously not enamored of the paranormal and faërie aspects of Lindsay's work, and sought to diminish and editorially censor it. But what exactly is faërie and the faërie realm?

Faërie is an English term referring to mythical or real creatures, elementals, and sentient beings that may have supernatural powers and usually occupy a dimension not aligned with the human reality but, at times, overlapping. It is most commonly known through the use of the word fairy, which is just one element of it. The dimension inhabited by faerie is referred to as the faërie realm. Encounters can be short or long, multidimensional, serendipitous or planned on the part of faërie or human kind, fruitful or frightening, and incidental or fateful, as in the case of Lindsay's novel. They, or rather it (faërie), largely exist in the fantasy genre between fiction and reality, usually presented therein under the umbrella term folklore and often pitched towards juvenile audiences, though not always, with Gothic horror being an example of the latter. The presence of faërie in reality has in recent times garnered greater acceptance (Organ 2023).

During the first half of 1967, those involved in the publication of Picnic at Hanging Rock came to the conclusion that inclusion of Lindsay's final chapter would diminish the traditionally conservative, mystery aspect of the book, and thereby impact upon sales. Whilst probably correct in regards to the latter, the decision was nevertheless regrettable, to say the least, as it removed the story's climactic ending wherein many of the early threads were drawn together. The mystery element would still have been there if it had been left in, and the chapter would have added significantly to the mystical aspect of the work. The decision to delete, or censor, reinforced, and revealed, the local antipathy towards faërie and the unexplained. Yet this had long been part of Australia's colonial literary heritage, as imported from Great Britain upon the arrival of the First Fleet back in 1788 and taught in schools through to the twentieth century. This is discussed in the present author's Faërie in Australia.

Picnic at Hanging Rock was part of a new wave of indigenous literature which was set in the Australian bush and often, though not in this particular instance, specifically incorporated aspects of Indigenous mythology and story telling, though some Post-Modernists would suggest otherwise (Earp 2017, Spiers 2017). In addition, Weir's later film was a landmark in a new era of Australian culture expression, facilitated by the election of the Whitlam Labor government in 1972, and the support therein for the local arts establishment, rather than ongoing reliance of English and American content. This renaissance took place in the wake of almost two centuries of anglophilia, and the reactionary, countercultural revolution which had taken place across Western societies during the 1960s and early 1970s, arriving somewhat late in Australia. Just as censorship of literary texts was railed against in Australia during the 1960s, largely based on sexual and political content, so Lindsay came to regret its application to Picnic at Hanging Rock in 1967. Precise reasons were not given, though tone and style were apparently some of those suggested, along with the ambiguity issue.

During 1972 Lindsay passed a copy of the expunged chapter on to her literary agent John Taylor. She then allocated him copyright during 1980, with the caveat that it should be published upon her death. In its absence, the question of the mystery of Hanging Rock became a popular conversation topic, especially during and after release of the film in 1975. As a result, a book was published in 1980 by Veronique Rousseau presenting four possible solutions to the mysterious disappearances presented in Picnic at Hanging Rock. It was based on a precise reading of the text and comments by the original author (Rousseau 1980). Some of the information uncovered as part of that research is included in a section below dealing with historical research into the disappearances outlined in the book.

Following Lindsay's death at the end of 1984, the unpublished chapter 18 was published in booklet form during 1987. It partially revealed what happened after the disappearance, whilst providing additional, though intriguing context to that event. The full text is reproduced below.

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3. The Secret of Hanging Rock (1966 / 1987)

The missing chapter 18 .... is one of the most fascinating and beautiful pieces of “paranormal fiction” I have ever read. (Wargo 2018)

The following text, known as Chapter 18, is from Joan Lindsay's original draft manuscript for Picnic at Hanging Rock, written during 1966. It was subsequently excluded from the published version, on the advice of, amongst others, the Cheshire Publishing junior editor Sandra Forbes. As a result, Lindsay was forced to incorporate a few elements from her original chapter 18 into chapter 3 of the book, mainly in connection with the lead up to the disappearances. That amended and edited version was published at the end of 1967.

The text of chapter 18, as publically revealed in 1987, differs slightly in style from the 1967 text as it is an earlier, unedited copy of the typed draft manuscript. As such, it had not been polished or tightened up by Forbes' editing, whereby elements such as a consistent voice would have been applied, typographical errors corrected, and formatting standardised in line with the rest of the text. For example, the following text appears in chapter 18 of the original manuscript:

At last the bushes are thinning out before the face of a little cliff that holds the last light of the sun. So, on a million summer evenings, the pattern forms and re-forms upon the crags and pinnacles of the Hanging Rock.

It takes the following form in chapter 3 of the 1967 publication, with a change in tense and slightly different wording:

Until at last the bushes began thinning out before the face of a little cliff that held the last light of the sun. So on a million summer evenings would the shadows lengthen upon the crags and pinnacles of the Hanging Rock.

In discussing these edits, McCulloch felt they were disjointed, and the lines appeared to make no sense (McCulloch 2018b). In fact, and in the view of the present author, they add clarity to certain events, such as the two instances when the girls look down from the top of Hanging Rock and, initially see their fellow students and teacher. On the second occasion, and unknown to them, they observe a search party. In order to clarify this chronological discrepancy and slip in time, the present author has elsewhere combined chapters 3 and 18 into a single chapter which, when read in conjunction with the rest of the book, ensures that the chronological flow of events on the afternoon of St. Valentine's Day is maintained. McCulloch also refers to a whole page of the original draft manuscript - a complete copy of which survives - that was omitted, dealing with an event which took place while the students and teachers were on route to Hanging Rock. She quotes the following extract:

They were within half a mile or so of the Picnic Grounds when there was an abrupt cessation of the easy jolting pace of the drag [passenger coach], together with a sensation of breaking and slipping, rather like a clock quietly ticking on the mantlepiece that suddenly runs down. The two sisters from New Zealand, remembering the awful stillness of the moment before an earthquake, trembled and clung. From the interior of the vehicle, grown unaccountably dark, Greta McCraw uttered a jubilant croak (Lindsay in McCulloch 2018b).

The significance of that text is related to the idea of a changeling version of Miss McCraw being present in the coach with the schoolgirls, rather than the real Miss McCraw. Changelings are shape-shifters, used by faërie in kidnapping or enticing children and young people away from family (Whalen 2023). They can take any form, and their transformation is not permanent.

Due to lack of clarity in regards to some of the conversations which appear in the original draft chapter 18 as published in 1987, and who is the speaker therein, the current author has inserted indicators where such is ambiguous, especially in regard to the 'stranger', who is the faërie form (a changeling or doppelganger) of Miss McCraw. Also, texts highlighted in bold below were subsequently inserted by Lindsay into chapter 3, prior to publication in the 1967. Chapter 18 opens with a paragraph outlining how the events described take place in a never-ending, timeless place - the unnamed faërie realm - from which the participants do not, or cannot, escape.

Chapter 18

It is happening now. As it has been happening ever since Edith Horton ran stumbling and screaming towards the plain. As it will go on happening until the end of time. The scene is never varied by so much as the falling of a leaf or the flight of a bird. To the four people on the Rock it is always acted out in the tepid twilight of a present without a past. Their joys and agonies are forever new.

Miranda is a little ahead of Irma and Marion as they push on through the dogwoods, her straight yellow hair swinging loose as corn silk about her thrusting shoulders. Like a swimmer, cleaving wave after wave of dusty green. An eagle hovering in the zenith sees an unaccustomed stirring of lighter patches amongst the scrub below, and takes off for higher, purer airs. At last the bushes are thinning out before the face of a little cliff that holds the last light of the sun. So, on a million summer evenings, the pattern forms and re-forms upon the crags and pinnacles of the Hanging Rock.

The plateau on which they presently emerged from the scrub had much the same conformation as the one lower down - boulders, loose stones, an occasional stunted tree. Clumps of rubbery ferns stirred faintly in the pale light. The plain below was infinitely vague and distant. Peering down between the ringing boulders, they could just make out tiny figures coming and going, through drifts of rosy smoke. A dark shape that might have been a vehicle beside the glint of water.

"Whatever can those people be doing down there, scuttling about like a lot of busy little ants?"

Marion came and looked over Irma's shoulder.

"A surprising number of human beings are without purpose." Irma giggled. "I dare say they think themselves quite important."

The ants and their fires were dismissed without further comment. Although Irma was aware, for a little while, of a rather curious sound coming up from the plain, like the beating of far-off drums.

Miranda had been the first to see the monolith - a single outcrop of stone something like a monstrous egg, rising smoothly out of the rocks ahead above a precipitous drop to the plain.

Irma, a few feet behind the other two, saw them suddenly halt, swaying a little, with heads bent and hands pressed to their breasts as if to steady themselves against a gale.

[Irma] "What is it, Marion? Is anything the matter?"

Marion's eyes were fixed and brilliant, her nostrils dilated, and Irma thought vaguely how like a greyhound she was.

[Marion] "Irma! Don't you feel it?"

"Feel what, Marion?" Not a twig was stirring on the little dried-up trees.

"The monolith. Pulling, like a tide. It's just about pulling me inside out, if you want to know."

As Marion Quade seldom joked, Irma was afraid to smile. Especially as Miranda was calling back over her shoulder, "'What side do you feel it strongest, Marion?"

"I can't make it out. We seem to be spiralling on the surface of a cone - all directions at once."

Mathematics again! When Marion Quade was particularly silly it was usually something to do with sums.

Irma said lightly, "sounds to me more like a circus! Come on, girls - we don't want to stand staring at that great thing forever."

As soon as the monolith was passed and out of sight, all three were overcome by an overpowering drowsiness. Lying down in a row on the smooth floor of a little plateau, they fell into a sleep so deep that a lizard darted out from under a rock and lay without fear in the hollow of Marion's outflung arm, while several beetles in bronze armour made a leisurely tour of Miranda's yellow head.

Miranda awoke first, to a colourless twilight in which every detail was intensified, every object clearly defined and separate. A forsaken nest wedged in the fork of a long-dead tree, with every straw and feather intricately laced and woven; Marion's torn muslin skirts fluted like a shell; Irma's dark ringlets standing away from her face in exquisite wiry confusion, the eyelashes drawn in bold sweeps on the cheek-bones. Everything, if you could only see it clearly enough, like this, is beautiful and complete. Everything has its own perfection.

A little brown snake dragging its scaly body across the gravel made a sound like wind passing over the ground. The whole air was clamorous with microscopic life.

Irma and Marion were still asleep. Miranda could hear the separate beating of their two hearts, like two little drums, each at a different tempo. And in the undergrowth beyond the clearing a crackling and snapping of twigs where a living creature moved unseen towards them through the scrub. It drew nearer, the crunchings and cracklings split the silence as the bushes were pushed violently apart and a heavy object was propelled from the undergrowth almost on to Miranda's lap.

It was a woman with a gaunt, raddled face trimmed with bushy black eyebrows - a clown-like figure dressed in a torn calico camisole and long calico drawers frilled below the knees of two stick-like legs, feebly kicking out in black lace-up boots.

[Stranger] "Through!" gasped the wide-open mouth, and again, "Through!"

The tousled head fell sideways, the hooded eyes closed.

"Poor thing! She looks ill," Irma said. "Where does she come from?"

"Put your arm under her head," Miranda said, "while I unlace her stays."

Freed from the confining husks, with her head pillowed on a folded petticoat, the stranger's breath became regular, the strained expression left her face and presently she rolled over on the rock and slept.

"Why don't we all get out of these absurd garments?" Marion asked. "After all, we have plenty of ribs to keep us vertical."

No sooner were the four pairs of corsets discarded on the stones and a delightful coolness and freedom set in, than Marion's sense of order was affronted.

"Everything in the universe has its appointed place, beginning with the plants. Yes, Irma, I meant it. You needn't giggle. Even our corsets on the Hanging Rock."

"Well, you won't find a wardrobe," Irma said, "however hard you look. Where can we put them?"

Miranda suggested throwing them over the precipice. "Give them to me."

"Which way did they fall?" Marion wanted to know. "I was standing right beside you but I couldn't tell."

[Stranger] "You didn't see them fall because they didn't fall."

The precise croaking voice came at them like a trumpet from the mouth of the clown-woman on the rock, now sitting up and looking perfectly comfortable.

[Stranger] "I think, girl, that if you turn your head to the right and look about level with your waist . . ."

They all turned their heads to the right and there, sure enough, were the corsets, becalmed on the windless air like a fleet of little ships. Miranda had picked up a dead branch, long enough to reach them, and was lashing out at the stupid things seemingly glued to the background of grey air.

"Let me try!" Marion said. Whack! Whack! "They must be stuck fast in something I can't see."

"If you want my opinion," croaked the stranger, "they are stuck fast in time. You with the curls - what are you staring at?"

[Irma] "I didn't mean to stare. Only when you said that about time I had such a funny feeling I had met you somewhere. A long time ago."

[Stranger] "Anything is possible, unless it is proved impossible. And sometimes even then." The scratchy voice had a convincing ring of authority. "And now, since we seem to be thrown together on a plane of common experience - I have no idea why - may I have your names? I have apparently left my own particular label somewhere over there." She waved towards the blank wall of scrub. "No matter. I perceive that I have discarded a good deal of clothing. However, here I am. The pressure on my physical body must have been very severe."

She passed a hand over her eyes and Marion asked with a strange humility, "Do you suggest we should go on before the light fades?"

[Stranger] "For a person of your intelligence - I can see your brain quite distinctly - you are not very observant. Since there are no shadows here, the light too is unchanging."

Irma was looking worried. "I don't understand. Please, does that mean that if there are caves, they are filled with light or darkness? I am terrified of bats."

Miranda was radiant. "Irma, darling - don't you see? It means we arrive in the light!"

"Arrive? But Miranda .... where are we going?"

[Stranger] "The girl Miranda is correct. I can see her heart, and it is full of understanding. Every living creature is due to arrive somewhere. If I know nothing else, at least I know that."

She had risen to her feet, and for a moment they thought she looked almost beautiful.

[Marion] "Actually, I think we are arriving. Now."

A sudden giddiness set her [Marion] whole being spinning like a top. It passed, and she saw the hole ahead. It wasn't a hole in the rocks, not a hole in the ground. It was a hole in space. About the size of a fully rounded summer moon, coming and going. She saw it as painters and sculptors saw a hole, as a thing in itself, giving shape and significance to other shapes. As a presence, not an absence - a concrete affirmation of truth. She felt that she could go on looking at it forever in wonder and delight, from above, from below, from the other side. It was as solid as the globe, as transparent as an air-bubble. An opening, easily passed through, and yet not concave at all. She had passed a lifetime asking questions and now they were answered, simply by looking at the hole. It faded out, and at last she was at peace.

The little brown snake had appeared again and was lying beside a crack that ran off somewhere underneath the lower of two enormous boulders balancing one on top of the other. When Miranda bent down and touched its exquisitely patterned scales it slithered away into a tangle of giant vines.

Marion knelt down beside her and together they began tearing away the loose gravel and the tangled cables of the vine.

[Marion] "It went down there. Look, Miranda - down that opening." A hole - perhaps the lip of a cave or tunnel, rimmed with bruised, heart-shaped leaves.

[Stranger] "You'll agree it's my privilege to enter first?"

[Miranda & Marion] "To enter?" they said, looking from the narrow lip of the cave to the wide, angular hips.

[Stranger] "Quite simple. You are thinking in terms of linear measurements, girl Marion. When I give you the signal - probably a tap on the rock - you may follow me, and the girl Miranda can follow you. Is that clearly understood?" The raddled face was radiant.

Before anyone could answer, the long-boned torso was flattening itself out on the ground beside the hole, deliberately forming itself to the needs of a creature created to creep and burrow under the earth. The thin arms, crossed behind the head with its bright staring eyes, became the pincers of a giant crab that inhabits mud-caked billabongs. Slowly the body dragged itself inch by inch through the hole. First the head vanished: then the shoulder-blades humped together; the frilled pantaloons, the long black sticks of the legs welded together like a tail ending in two black boots.

"I can hardly wait for the signal," Marion said. When presently a few firm raps were heard from under the rock she went in quite easily, head first, smoothing down her chemise without a backward glance.

"My turn next," Miranda said.

Irma looked at Miranda kneeling beside the hole, her bare feet embedded in vine leaves - so calm, so beautiful, so unafraid.

"Oh, Miranda, darling Miranda, don't go down there - I'm frightened. Let's go home!"

"Home? I don't understand, my little love. Why are you crying? Listen! Is that Marion tapping? I must go." Her eyes shone like stars. The tapping came again. Miranda pulled her long, lovely legs after her and was gone.

Irma sat down on a rock to wait. A procession of tiny insects was winding through a wilderness of dry moss. Where had they come from? Where were they going? Where was anyone going? Why, oh why, had Miranda thrust her bright head into a dark hole in the ground? She looked up at the colourless grey sky, at the drab, rubbery ferns, and sobbed aloud.

How long had she been staring at the lip of the cave, staring and listening for Miranda to tap on the rock? Listening and staring, staring and listening. Two or three runnels of loose sand came pattering down the lower of the two great boulders on to the flat upturned leaves of the vine as it tilted slowly forward and sank with a sickening precision directly over the hole.

Irma had flung herself down on the rocks and was tearing and beating at the gritty face of the boulder with her bare hands. She had always been clever at embroidery. They were pretty little hands, soft and white.

END

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4. The faërie realm

It is dusk. Twilight casts a faint glow upon a meadow. You are walking a dirt path along the edge of a dark forest. From deep within you hear a sound, like a melding of speech and song. Something, you know not what, impels you to follow. As you enter the woods, it feels as though you've crossed a threshold. Though you had only walked a few steps, when you look back the place from whence you came is gone. There is a stillness, and a sense that the forest had fallen silent only just before you had arrived, as if it did not want to be heard. There is a secret here, protecting hallowed ground. The branches of the trees sway like a slow dance, and time seems to slow with it. How much has passed - minutes, hours? Something moves in the shadows, and the feeling creeps in that you are not alone. A pale light appears in the distance, floating towards you like a feather on the breeze, though the air is still. You have now entered the faërie realm... (Christian, The Hidden Passage, 2023)

I peered in, and there, all alone, sat an incredibly old little man with bright, blue eyes, playing away like a fairy on a home-made wooden flute (Lindsay 1934).

Whether we talk of it or not, that awful thing is always in my mind .... always and always. (Irma Leopold, 1900)

Due to the official publication of the deleted chapter in 1987, Picnic at Hanging Rock could now rightly be referred to as an ambiguous, dark, fairy tale (Gibson 2019). But what precisely had the book and additional chapter got to do with the so-called faërie realm mentioned in the title of this article - a realm which is little known or discussed in the Australian context?

Mannun, Episode 11 - The Faery Realm, Witch 'N the Working, YouTube, 2020, duration: 22.56 minutes.

The faërie realm, where it is known, is primarily associated with the sugary, happily-ever-after Disneyesque world of Tinkerbell and the Fairy Godmother. However, as noted in the videos above and below, at times the faërie realm can present a much darker and malevolent suite of characters, creatures, and tragic outcomes.

The History of Fairies - the dark & tragic stories you were never told, Mythology & Fiction Explained, YouTube, 19 March 2022, duration: 19.58 minutes.

This malevolent aspect is not only seen within Picnic at Hanging Rock but also revealed in the long tradition of child and adult abduction by faërie, on a worldwide basis, both in fantasy and reality. In the latter instance, many such events have been blamed on earthly or alien kidnappings (Blacker 1967, Cutchin 2018, Luck 2022). In fiction they are commonly stories of children being enticed away into the faërie realm utilising what is referred to as a glamour spell and, in some instances, being replaced by so-called changelings, who appear superficially identical to the stolen child or older person, similar to a doppelganger, which can be real or spirit. We observe this in the 2018 television adaptation of Picnic at Hanging Rock and the scene where Miranda is walking through the bush, along the lower slopes of the mountain, and as she looks upwards towards the monoliths she sees a second group identical to hers, disappearing in amongst the rocks. Obviously one of the groups is real, and the other is four faërie changelings or doppelgangers. This is not mentioned in the original novel, but has been developed by the program scriptwriter, Beatrix Christian, obviously in an effort to expand the mystical aspects of the television series in line with chapter 18. It ties in with the later appearance of a McCraw changeling.

The faërie elements of Picnic at Hanging Rock were substantially expanded upon in that final chapter, though they had appeared sporadically in the earlier chapters as well, and been noticed by readers such as her literary agent and former promotions manager at Cheshire Publishing, John Taylor, in 1972 when queried by the author. Lindsay had indicated a possible crossover into the faërie realm within chapter 3 of the book as published, referring to drifts of rosy smoke seen by the girls as they looked down on the plain below Hanging Rock and saw ant-like figures, along with the beating of far-off drums heard by Irma. Therein the latter was suggestive of a possible faërie event taking place, enticing the girls to join in.

The only external reference to a faërie element within the many subsequent reviews and commentaries of and on Picnic at Hanging Rock that this author has found is the following brief mention by Veronique Rousseau in connection with the publication of chapter 18:

A pink cloud (or pink smoke) is introduced to mark a boundary with physical reality; within the region of the cloud (as in legendary fairy kingdoms) time passes at a different rate ... (Lindsay, Taylor and Rousseau 1987)

Otherwise that author suggests a complex, metaphysical and time-based multidimensional realm as the ultimate fate of those who went missing. Outside of the context provided by the original chapter 18, the true significance of the cliff-top observation as a Joan Lindsay experienced time slip was not available to the reader. Both of these elements had been inserted into chapter 3 following the excision of chapter 18. Of course, that final chapter expanded upon all of this mystical material. Whether additional elements of faërie were dispersed amongst other chapters, but deleted by Sandra Forbes during the editing process, is not known.

There are some significant difference between what was incorporated into chapter 3 and appeared in the 1967 published text, and what took place during chapter 18 in regard to the ultimate disappearance of the schoolgirls and their teacher. Approximately twenty sentences or statements overlap between the two sources, where Lindsay took sections of the deleted chapter and inserted them into the final edit. For example, the earlier (1966) chapter 18 opens noting that Edith has already left the three girls, whilst in the later (1967) published chapter 3 there is an expansion of what happens whilst she is still with them. Therein Edith does not leave the group until after they have passed the monolith and been put to sleep. When the four awake, she sees the other three girls walk off and disappear, all the while screaming for Miranda to come back. She then runs off down the hill back to the picnic area. In the earlier (1966) version Edith is already gone prior to their encountering the monolith. When the three girls awake after passing it, they alone encounter the stranger, and are then present as it transforms into a partially crab-like creature.

Chapter 18 reveals that the schoolgirls and former Miss McCraw had stepped into a different dimension of reality, encountering there a Pied Piper-type figure - referred to simply as a stranger or clown-woman - who drew them deeper into that world and their ultimate, unknown destination (Masson 2016). We now find out why the Miss McCraw seen by Edith when she ran screaming down the hill was not fully clothed, and seemingly very different from the prim, proper and very staid Appleyard College mathematics teacher they knew so well. This was never explained in the 1967 book, but it is in the deleted chapter, or at least hinted at.

Throughout the book Lindsay is pointing to the Miss McCraw that Edith saw as a faërie changeling, or doppelganger. In chapter 18 the creature reveals, somewhat surprisingly, that ....the pressure on my physical body must have been very severe, causing it to disrobe along the pathway. A number of questions arise from this statement. Firstly, was the changeling herein referencing the process whereby a faërie corporeal spirit is able to create a doppelganger body as needed? It would seem that in creating the McCraw doppelganger (i.e., the changeling) the bodily features were rough - a woman with a gaunt, raddled face trimmed with bushy black eyebrows - a clown-like figure dressed in a torn calico camisole and long calico drawers frilled below the knees of two stick-like legs, feebly kicking out in black lace-up boots - and the clothing similarly haphazard. This was not the Miss McCraw that the three schoolgirls were used to, especially Marion, the ace mathematics student.

We can also ask: at what point did the real Miss McCraw disappear and be replaced by the faërie realm changeling? We can assume it occurred prior to her leaving Appleyard College on the morning of the picnic, judging by the comments made by Hussey, Mademoiselle de Poitiers and the author on the trip to Hanging Rock. This also helps explain the section in the text where, as McCraw is walking along the lower path of the track towards the summit, her footprints simply disappear. We can assume this is the point at which she enters into the faërie realm, and starts to float in a manner similar to the group of girls before her. The strangeness of the new stranger (changeling / doppelganger), and its speech, is further revealed when it informs Marion that it can see her brain (representing intelligence) and Miranda that it can see her heart (representing compassion). Both Hussey and de Poitiers comment upon the out-of-character behaviour by McCraw.

The later reference by Lindsay to the stranger's arm transforming into pincers, similar to the giant crabs which inhabit billabongs, is the closest the author gets within the book to possibly referencing Aboriginal Dreaming stories and accounts of the creature known as the Bunyip. The suggested connection therein is tentative at best, and not indicative of Lindsay applying any specific knowledge of Aboriginal mythology within the text. Also, crab-like creatures are not known to be associated with bunyips. It has been claimed by some that the crab transformation is based on aspects of the Dreamtime, but no specific evidence has been found for this (Lindsay, Taylor and Rousseau 1987). Whilst totemic associations are common within Australian First Nations society, these are sometimes associated with rebirth and reincarnation, though not with transformation as far as the present author is aware. In fact, the crab transformation is more likely associated with European faërie mythology, wherein the crab is presented as a messenger and guide. Evidence for this is provided below under The Fairy Crab section. The present author's reading of Picnic at Hanging Rock found it devoid of specific references to Indigenous mythology, with only the single mention of an Aboriginal tracker being brought into the search following the disappearance. Lindsay does not appear to be aware of any Dreamtime stories relating to Hanging Rock, and none have subsequently been revealed.

Another mystical element of the disappearance is the transformation of Miranda just prior to entering the hole, or cave in the ground. It is noted that, in the view of Irma, Miranda was radiant ... so calm, so beautiful, so unafraid.... her eyes shone like stars. This was obviously an element of the faërie enticement of Irma - the application of glamour as it pertains to enchantment and magic - which sought to have her follow the other two girls and the stranger down the hole. It did not work and, as a result, she stayed outside on the rock platform. When they did not return, and sand and a boulder covered the entrance to the hole, she tried to scrape it all away with her hands, unsuccessfully. She then went to sleep and was seen the next day by Michael, and recovered the day after by Albert. However, in the typical timescape of the faërie realm, this took place in Michael's reality six and seven days later, but seemingly overnight in Irma's as she was largely unaffected, apart from a few cuts and bruises on her hands and, somewhat mysteriously, on her head. There are in both chapter 18 and the published text a number of references to head wounds suffered by Michael and Irma, but no description provided by Lindsay as to their origin.

In the present author's opinion an amalgamation of the two chapters, or editing of chapter 3 along with inclusion of chapter 18, or even publication of the original, unedited draft manuscript, would serve to better assist the reader in understanding what happened on the mountain that afternoon of St. Valentine's Day, 1900. Such an amalgamation has been created by the present author and can be accessed here. Through a reading of this, we can more clearly appreciate the events surrounding the disappearances. A brief summary of what we find follows.

Summary: Around 2pm, Miranda and three other schoolgirls - Marion, Irma and Edith - decide to explore Hanging Rock, despite being initially told by Mrs Appleyard not to do so. They are granted permission by French governess and teacher Mademoiselle Dianne de Poitiers. On the way, Edith, the youngest of the group, sees a strange "nasty" red cloud in the distance and gets hungry and scared. She observes Miranda, in a dream-like state, walk off ahead as if floating, followed by the two other girls. At this point Edith either leaves (chapter 18) or follows (chapter 3). In the chapter 18 alternative Edith leaves the group before they reach a strange monolith. As she escapes, she passes the elderly teacher Miss McCraw - most likely her changeling version - heading in the opposite direction, though dressed only in her underwear. In the chapter 3 version the three girls - Miranda, Marion and Irma - travel further on alone. They reach the top of the mountain and observe future events .... Peering down between the ringing boulders, they could just make out tiny figures coming and going, through drifts of rosy smoke.... Irma was aware, for a little while, of a rather curious sound coming up from the plain, like the beating of far-off drums. Irma was the only one to hear this sound. They then reach the strange monolith, where Miranda and Marion are subject to a strange, disorienting force. They move on and are then overcome by an energy which eventually causes drowsiness. They fall asleep. When Miranda awakes, a strange woman appears - the changeling version of Miss McCraw. She is violently thrown towards Miranda from the surrounding bush and rock. The three girls do not recognise this woman, who presents as a gaunt, raddled face trimmed with bushy black eyebrows - a clown-like figure dressed in a torn calico camisole and long calico drawers frilled below the knees of two stick-like legs. She asks the girls for their names, as she had apparently lost hers. [NB: This is a common event in faërie encounters, wherein the creature seeks the name of the person and thereby obtains some power over them, including the ability to entice]. The group of four now sees a strange hole magically appear in the space before them. The stranger's face then turns beautiful and radiant, after which her bony body partially transforms into a crab-like creature to facilitate entering a cave through a hole in the ground. Two of the girls - Miranda and Marion - follow her in. Irma stays behind, wary of the events occurring. She watches and waits, as eventually a landslide of sand and boulder covers the entrance. She is subsequently found on the mountain top, a week after disappearing. Here the story ends, with no mention of the ultimate fate of the now missing three individuals - Miranda, Marion and Miss McCraw.

Chapter 18 clearly sets Picnic at Hanging Rock within the traditionally British faërie realm of fantasy and mythological folklore. Many examples therein, spoken, written and recorded over the millennia, replicate events contained within Picnic at Hanging Rock. The final 1967 edition does not do this to any obvious degree. This faërie context is a logical assumption when we take into account the fact that Lindsay was raised in the English schooling tradition at a period in Australian history where colonial ties were strong and association with paranormal events would have substantially been perceived within the British cultural perspective of faërie. This relationship to the faërie realm is seen in the novel (1967 and 1987) and throughout the 1975 film and 2018 television series, in the following aspects and incidents:

the stopping of watches as the party arrives at Hanging Rock (novel);
mysterious shadows cast about the Hanging Rock environment (novel);
the presence of invisible figures and mysterious voices and sounds encountered by the girls as they ascend Hanging Rock;
the individuality of perception by the group that travels to the top of Hanging Rock (novel);
the appearance to Miranda of the temporary changelings, i.e., mirror images of the four girls as they climb through the bush and past the rocks (2018 TV adaptation);
the mysterious "nasty" red cloud seen by Edith (novel);
the encounter with a powerful, energy emitting monolith which induces sleep, or a state of unconsciousness, upon the schoolgirls (chapter 18);
Irma's observations from atop the rock of events past, present and future taking place below her (novel and chapter 18);
the appearance of a distinct hole in the space before the schoolgirls and teacher, a precursor to a convex, spherical black hole (chapter 18);
the creation of a Miss McCraw changeling (novel and chapter 18);
the transformation of the "stranger" into a partially crab-like creature (chapter 18);
the dilation of time throughout the disappearance episode and subsequent discovery of Irma a week later (novel and chapter 18);
the schoolgirls and Miss McCraw leaving no tracks once they pass the lower reaches of Hanging Rock and start climbing (novel and chapter 18);
Edith noting how the three schoolgirls appeared to slide across the ground, and Irma's feel were clean and unmarked when she was found (novel);
Mademoiselle de Poitiers watching Miranda ... a little ahead glide through tall grasses, and Michael Fitzhubert watching her, as she crosses a creek, skimming over the water like one of the white swans on his uncle's lake (novel).
the distortion of space, whereby the three schoolgirls and Miss McCraw disappear permanently and are never found (novel and chapter 18);
Michael's encounter with the faërie realm during his search for the girls, resulting in locating Irma, then collapsing as he escapes (novel)
the appearance of an unchanging light which generates no shadows, though it is twilight outside (novel and chapter 18).

Light features in the chapter 18 events, and this is significant. The faërie realm is traditionally said to exist in eternal twilight. As twilight descends upon Hanging Rock, the stranger entices the girls into the hole in the ground with the promise of a continuation of the artificial light of the faërie realm they are then within, and ultimately a brighter light. Miranda and Marion are excited by this.

As outlined in the above History of Fairies video, there are two types of faërie - light and dark - and it is the dark who are malevolent and kidnap children and young adults for breeding or other purposes. The dark stranger is using the promise of light as an element of its enticement. It would seem that Lindsay is reflecting this aspect of faërie mythology within chapter 18 in order to help explain the disappearance - a disappearance she was aware of in some form of reality.

All of these events speak of an encounter with the faërie realm. They in turn offer an explanation for the permanent disappearance of three individuals, temporary disappearance of one, and the partial transformation into a mythical creature of Miss McCraw's changeling. This explanation can be accepted regardless of whether one accepts the reality of the faërie realm, or its presence as a mere fantasy fiction device made use of here by Joan Lindsay.

Some commentators have suggested that Miranda and Marion subsequently transformed into faërie creatures - a swan and a snake - but the present author is not aware of any evidence for this, apart from the inclusion of the white swan motif throughout the text, as a spirit animal attached to Michael and representation of his idealised attraction to, and love / lust for, Miranda.

Joan Lindsay undoubtedly had direct knowledge, or experience, of the faërie realm, either through her readings since a child, in association with inherent psychic abilities, or simple circumstances, such as eerie encounters at Hanging Rock over the years. Her writings in this area are few and far between, though two examples have been noted from the 1920s and 1930s:

Quite early in her writing life she began to explore the realm of the uncanny and the macabre, with plays (unpublished), such as ‘Wolf!’ and ‘Cataract’. ‘Wolf!’, which was performed in Swanage, England, in May 1930, was a joint writing venture with her friends, the sisters Margot Goyder and Ann Joske, who under the pseudonym ‘Margot Neville’, were for many years among Australia's best known detective story writers. In ‘Cataract’ Lindsay uses several motifs she would later develop in Picnic at Hanging Rock, including the spiritual force of an exotic and seemingly hostile landscape, and our paradoxical relationship with time. (O'Neil 2009)

As was noted during 2018 by the author of The Timeshift blog:

...there are only subtle hints of anything paranormal in the film, or even in the book, unless you are paying close attention. The paranormal is mainly in the backstory of the author, the unusual circumstances of the writing of her 1967 novel, and especially in what was excised from the text [Chapter 18] prior to publication. Lindsay’s novel turns out to be a kind of “fractal” representation of the paranormal and its fate in our culture: to be “disappeared,” just like the alluring, disobedient schoolgirls. (Wargo 2018)

Some of Lindsay's otherworldly encounters and inexplicable traits are described in biographical articles published following her death. For example, in 1963, when she first considered writing a novel around Hanging Rock, Lindsay made a visit there with a good friend, Colin Caldwell. He later noted:

She was very much a mystic. She could sense things in the landscape that other's couldn't. (Mahalia 2018)

Other friends also referred to her as a mystic. Biographer Janelle McCulloch noted the following in 2017:

According to those who were close to her, she had certain abilities, sensitivities. She could "see" things that others couldn't, especially in the bush landscape. She knew things without being told. She could not only tell what had happened in the past, but also predict events in the future, without knowing why or how. And she could communicate with those who live in that grey space between life and the world beyond it. Those friends feel that Joan's novel is the result of this curious ability, which she'd had ever since she was three. (McCulloch 2017a)

Lindsay's inherent psychic ability, of which we know little apart from these quotes, and perhaps connection with the faërie realm, was partially revealed around 1929. According to an account by literary agent John Taylor:

Her husband was driving her to Creswick to dine with his mother when Joan observed a strange sight: half a dozen nuns were running frantically across a field and climbing a fence. Her husband saw nothing. Puzzled, she asked her mother-in-law if there was a convent in the area. There had been, she was told, but it had burned down years earlier. (Lindsay, Taylor and Rousseau 1987)

A large fire at Creswick had occurred on 7 February 1860, and at a nunnery near there on 26 January 1939, after the sighting by Lindsay. Whether this was evidence of a psychic connection, a time slip, or if Lindsay had other sightings or engagement with the faërie realm, is not known. This information nevertheless goes toward explaining why she so ardently proclaimed the "truth" of her novel. It is likely that as a result of prior life experiences, the dreams she had in the winter of 1966 were full of faërie elements, and the basic scenario of Picnic at Hanging Rock was able to deal with the actuality and consequences of an encounter, or encounters, with the faërie realm. For we must ask: What else was Lindsay referring to when she told friends of her communication with those who live in that grey space between life and the world beyond it? e was not referring to mere ghosts here.

This connection with the faërie realm and other corporeal entities seems obvious when we step back and look at what Lindsay had written within Picnic at Hanging Rock, the circumstances surrounding the writing process, and some of her subsequent comments, especially the repeated emphasis on the fact that much of what she wrote was true, or real. In a country with little or no sophisticated understanding or appreciation of the faërie realm, it is not surprising that, in her latter years, Lindsay should have little patience for those well-meaning individuals, or otherwise doubting Thomas's, including Peter Weir, who asked if there was any truth to the story. She obviously knew that most would not believe here, or would seek to prove her wrong and react with glee when no evidence was found to support her claims. Also, a long-term connection with faërie helps explain her determination to ensure the publication, upon her death, of the deleted chapter which described this core element of the book - the mysterious disappearances.

The present article therefore looks at Picnic at Hanging Rock, and especially chapter 18, with the faërie realm in mind. It is a realm which has traditionally been disregarded in Australia, and more generally elsewhere, especially when it lays claims to having a factual basis. It can be noted that research into the latter occurred as early as 1691 in Scotland, though skepticism has prevailed over the following three centuries (Kirk 1815). Robert Kirk's description of the invisible people ties in with many aspects of recently recorded faërie encounters, and events described in Picnic at Hanging Rock. Interest in real faërie ramped up again during the 2010s, even at the academic level, with an international census of encounters being compiled (Young 2022).

Australian's have long been happy to read British and European folklore and fairy tales, such as works by the Brothers Grimm, Enid Blyton and even J.R.R. Tolkien, but do not, to any noticeable degree, believe in a local faërie realm. Rather, it is left to those foreign traditions, just as the local Australian Aboriginal traditions are lumped into the concept of Dreaming / Dreamtime and are not generally accepted as having a factual basis when it comes to referring to encounters with strange creatures such as Yowie or Bunyips, or non-historic events. By factual I am here referring to the truthfulness of individual experiences with alternate dimensions not of our own, and which, by their nature, are ephemeral, though locations such as Hanging Rock do possess a track record which heightens the likelihood of an encounter with the paranormal, spirits and other dimensions.

The tragic encounter with the faërie realm in chapter 18 of Picnic at Hanging Rock, though fictional, has never been discussed within that context in any detail since publication in 1987, though identification of the book as a so-called fairy tale is now more often noted. In fact, this aspect largely remains ignored by the general readership, and the publisher, whilst theories fly around under the cover of numerous different labels (Palmer 2018). Chapter 18's original deletion back in 1967 reflects upon Australia's literary and societal conservatism at the time, and failure to appreciate the fantasy elements of the story, including Lindsay's own debt to faërie. However, it also reveals that her series of Hanging Rock dreams during 1966 were very much focused upon such an encounter. In turn, she noted having first attempted writing about the place, perhaps autobiographically, during the previous decade (Barrett 1980).

It is also worth noting that Lindsay's mystical energy-emitting monolith was a precursor to that seen two years later in the science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick 1968). It also brings to mind the monolith encountered more than a decade earlier by the hobbits in the Barrow-downs chapter of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, which, upon encountering, they too fall asleep next to (Organ 2022a). Therein the monolith is a marker to a barrow (earthen tomb) containing a ghostly, evil Barrow-wight (Tolkien 1954-5). Lindsay's crab-woman is the Barrow-wight equivalent here. Was Lindsay's dream incorporating some elements of Tolkien? The British author was very familiar with, and a student of, the faërie realm. In a 1939 university lecture on fairy stories he stated the following in regard to its expansive nature:

Faërie contains many things besides elves and fays, and besides dwarfs, witches, trolls, giants, or dragons; it holds the seas, the sun, the moon, the sky; and the earth, and all things that are in it: tree and bird, water and stone, wine and bread, and ourselves, mortal men, when we are enchanted. (Tolkien 1939)

Readings and interpretations of Picnic at Hanging Rock have followed numerous misguided paths since 1967, looking to prove, or find, a factual basis to the events presented, and statements made, by the author in that regard. Some contemporary newspaper reports and recent video presentations reflecting on findings are included in a section below. Academic readings of the text, based on concepts such as post-modernism, colonialism, homo-eroticism, feminism and allocation of literary categorisations such as Gothic or, more recently, fairy tale, have also appeared. This article steers clear of such analyses and presents a faërie perspective that, as far as this author is aware, has never been applied to Lindsay's work.

In researching faërie, and listening to retellings of recent encounters, the present author has noted that there are many instances where individuals speak of being enticed into following, or joining with, individual faërie or groups of faërie. Obviously those who tell the stories turned down the offer, or returned, with those who accepted the offer usually disappearing, like the schoolgirls and teacher. Many say they felt fearful at the time of having a faërie encounter, such as we see with Edith, and also Irma, within Picnic at Hanging Rock; whilst others express regret at their decision not to join with faërie, so enticing was it at the time. And what of those who say yes? Is Picnic at Hanging Rock the story of one such fateful encounter with the faërie realm, where two schoolgirls and a teacher indeed said yes, and others no? Can crossover into the faërie dimension actually take place, with no return, as appears to have occurred at Hanging Rock? Veronique Rousseau posed a similar question in her 1980 book The Murders at Hanging Rock, prior to becoming aware of chapter 18:

But could it be .... that the events in the novel did take place, only in a universe parallel to our own? Could Joan Lindsay have penetrated, unwittingly, some psychic barrier, enabling her to transcribe a record of those events? She has, after all, described how her work "just came to me. I never had to think a moment about what any of the characters were called. They simply sprang to life, ready. I just had to write them down". (Rousseau 1980)

This precisely reflects some of the comments by J.R.R. Tolkien in regard to his automatic, subconscious writing of large parts of The Lord of the Rings. Anne Louise Lambert, the actress who played Miranda in the 1975 film, similarly noted some years later that, in refining her characterisation and performance, she sought to believe that the girls had disappeared into a portal which took them to another dimension. This is very close to what Joan Lindsay had stated in the at-that-time unpublished chapter 18.

Picnic at Hanging Rock - what happened to the girls?, Interview with Anne Louise Lambert [excerpt], National Film and Sound Archive, YouTube, 22 February 2016, duration: 1.52 minutes.

In fact, whilst filming, Lindsay came up to Lambert, gave her a hug, and whispered in her ear: Oh Miranda, its been so long! This implies that there was a solid reality to the Miranda character Lindsay had presented in Picnic at Hanging Rock, at least in the author's mind. Such a reality may have been no more than that, i.e., an individual illusion, or delusion. If it was a one-off, then that could explain much. However, if it was part of a life-long behaviour on the part of Lindsay, then more weight can be attached to the statement. In the opinion of the present author, it was very much the latter.

It is obvious from the accounts referred to above that brief entry into the faërie realm is common, or at least a temporary overlapping with our own realm can occur. However, the present author is not specifically aware of many accounts where a lengthy crossover occurs and an individual later decides to return to their original reality, reappearing after many years, often with no memory of where they have been. Robert Kirk provides one such example in his account originally written in 1562, where a pregnant woman is taken, gives birth in the faërie realm, and is subsequently returned to reality two years later, without her child (Kirk 1815). The thought of such events occurring is intriguing, and perhaps a natural corollary of the recent research into the actual reality of the faërie realm (Young 2018). Within Picnic at Hanging Rock Irma was fortunate to return, unharmed, after a week in the faërie realm - a week which, as Lindsay writes it, was only a single day to the schoolgirls. Miranda, Marion and Miss McCraw were not so lucky ..... or were they actually in a better place than the one they left?

Misplaced questions which arose following the publication of chapter 18 in 1987 regarding its authenticity centred around the fact that it seemed rougher than the published text. As noted above, this was due to the fact that it was unedited. Disbelievers also queried why it was initially rejected, though generally agreed that the book was better without it. At one stage the National Trust, holder of Lindsay's copyright for all other works, challenged Taylor's claim to copyright on chapter 18, but withdrew the claim when provided with evidence of the transfer by Lindsay in 1980. The fact that chapter 18 was officially published, with a disinterested introduction by Taylor and commentary by expert Rousseau, also pointed to its authenticity. This was then confirmed by Sandra Forbes, who recounted the various discussions at the time (1967) as to whether it should be included (Goltz 2017). Regardless, the appearance of chapter 18 has largely been ignored by the general public, and no version of the work with it incorporated into the text is known to have been prepared. One commentator, following a reading of chapter 18, went so far as to question Lindsay's perception of reality and felt that it raised more questions than it answered (Goltz 2017). The reason for this lack of interest and confusion over its content is undoubtedly due to the fantastical nature of the chapter, and its delving into the faërie realm. The most mystical element therein is the crab creature transformation referred to above.

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5. The Fairy Crab

Undoubtedly the strangest and most faërie element of chapter 18 is the ultimate transformation of the stranger into a partially crab-like creature which then leads Miranda and Marion down a mysterious hole in the ground from which they never return. What is the origin of this element of Picnic at Hanging Rock? What was the intent of the author in including g this fantastical episode?

Strangely, the crad has mythological meaning in texts dating back through the centuries. In this instance it is reminiscent of the crab in both The Golden Crab, an ancient Greek fairy tale published during 1894 within Andrew Lang's famous compilation The Yellow Fairy Book, and The White Doe, of French origin and included in Lang's The Orange Fairy Book of 1906 (Lang 1894 & 1906).

Henry Justice Ford, The Uninvited Fairy, engraving, from The White Doe, in Andrew Lang (editor), The Orange Fairy Book, 1906.

Whether the young Joan Lindsay read such stories in her youth, or later, and knew of the crab mythology, will likely never be known. However, it seems that it came back to her in 1966 during the series of winter dreams which culminated in Picnic at Hanging Rock. Within The White Doe, a crab temps a young woman to follow her into the faërie realm, where she is granted a wish - to have a child - and allowed to return. When the woman does not later thank the crab, it returns to her world, grows to a threatening size, and curses the child.

The carcinos (Cancer / crab) creature in mythology is associated with the power of suggestion or charm, invisibility, dancing lights, and a fog cloud - all elements of the Picnic at Hanging Rock encounter as presented by Lindsay.

Henry Justice Ford, The Queen and the Crab, coloured print, from The White Doe, in Andrew Lang (editor), The Orange Fairy Book, 1906.

As regards the fate of Miss McCraw, Lindsay informs us that nobody saw her leave the picnic group - most of them were asleep at the time; neither did anyone see her remove her dress and other garments such as a purple cape as she followed the track taken by the four girls. In chapter 6 we are informed that her tracks through the bush disappeared suddenly - petered out almost at once - at the precise point where the girls had left the grassy plain and started to climb upwards. A faërie realm scenario explaining this, and presented above, could be that she entered the faërie realm / dimension at this precise point and that the stranger seen by the girls was actually a changeling or doppelganger - a near identical copy of Miss McCraw. This was why the stranger was so easily able to change into a crab, as related in chapter 18. Mrs Appleyard is telling in her thoughts just prior to her own suicide, when she bemoans with regards to her missing mathematics teacher:

It was inconceivable that [Miss McCraw] should have allowed herself to be spirited away ...

She goes on to refer to the more mundane possibilities, such as murder, but once again Lindsay has precisely planted a mystical seed.

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6. The 2018 TV series

The direct reference for us is the book. [This series] is a complete re-imagining of the book ... So we went back to the original text .... and expanded from there. It's actually surprising how much sub-text there is there..... What I love most about it is the surreal elements of it; the sort of magical realism to it. David Lynch was a reference when we were making it... There is a Lewis Carroll-like trippiness to it. (Dormer 2018a)

Anything is possible, unless it is proved impossible. And sometimes even then. (Lindsay 1966 [1987])

It gets a bit Lewis Carroll..... (Dormer 2018b)

During 2017 filming took place in Victoria, Australia, of a Foxtel, six episode television series of Picnic at Hanging Rock, based on the 1967 book and 1987's chapter 18. This lush production, which included filming at Hanging Rock and other Victorian locations, dealt with the disappearance in the initial episode and came back to it throughout the remaining five, though most noticeably in the episode six climax. Throughout, there was a definite mystical element at the Hanging Rock picnic, and much more so than in the 1975 film. This came in the form of the clocks stopping right on 12 midday; the large party of girls falling asleep as a group, apart from the four who then head off up the mountain; Irma's comment that the mountain did not like them, strange noises and feelings that they were being followed as they walked; the dazed look in the girls faces as they moved through the grassy area; Miranda seeing the doppelganger group of four girls up on the mountain; and Miranda's feeling disassociated from reality. This doppelganger scene raises the suggestion with the viewer that the group had been copied by some spirits or creatures of the faërie realm - taken and replaced by changelings - and that what Miranda saw was that spirit group, which then disappeared suddenly before her. There was no reference to Miss McCraw at that point. The episode ended with Edith running down the mountain screaming and the party returning to the school in the dark. The mystery began...

At the end of episode 2 and beginning of 3 Irma is found and interviewed. She remembers nothing, but has nightmares about the rock and what may have happened. The final episode intermixes the last moments of the three girls, and of Miss McCraw, alongside that of Mrs Appleyard's suicide.

This is a typical tale of the faërie realm, though there are no flittering fairies, little green men, pixies, leprechauns, or goblins, yowies or bunyips. In post-filming interviews with the main actors, one of the women points out that the show runs with the energy of chapter 18 and its so-called magical elements, even though we do not actually see the crab transformation or the move of the girls and McCraw into another dimension through a hole in the ground. The Aboriginal lead actress, who plays Marion, similarly talks about the chapter 18 mystical elements. Despite this, the show largely follows the same path as the 1975 Peter Weir film in leaving much unsaid and unseen. The mystery of Hanging Rock remains ....

Natalie Dormer on playing a 'draconian' headmistress, YouTube, 14 June 2018, duration: 19.20 minutes.

There are a few problems with the television adaptation, mainly in regards to unnecessary deviations from the text. For example, two wraith-like riders on horses are inserted into the scene as the party enters the gate into the picnic grounds. It is implied that these are malevolent and therefore possibly responsible for the later disappearances, though no evidence for that is given. One positive is the manner in which the strange malevolence of Mrs Appleyard is clearly presented, resulting in the latter's death.

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7. Joan Lindsay and time

There was something about her that was metaphysical, or of another world. You always felt as through you were talking with somebody who had the most tremendous inspiration from somewhere, and didn't quite know from where. (Pat Lovell 2004)

Mr Hussey ... guided the five bay horses out of the known present and into the unknown future... (Lindsay 1967)

According to some commentators, there exists a simple explanation for the events which lie at the heart of Picnic at Hanging Rock, and it revolves around the concept of time, and Joan Lindsay's ongoing interest in that subject. We see it in the book when, at the picnic, the coachman's and all other watches stop, precisely at midday. Everything after that is timeless, at least until there is a realisation that the three schoolgirls and Miss McCraw are missing. It also applies to them most obviously as they reach the mountain top and twilight fails to bring darkness. This timeslip phenomena, or time fluidity, is not explained or elaborated upon in the 1967 publication. However, it is introduced within the first paragraph of the deleted chapter 18:

According to some, rather than the schoolgirls and their teacher disappearing due to some felony or rational misadventure, they are simply trapped in another time. Lindsay's friend Phillip Adams explained this in his 2020 introduction to the reprint of her 1962 autobiographical novel Time Without Clocks (Lindsay 1962a & 2020).

The girls at Hanging Rock did not disappear from the physical realm. They disappeared in time.

And elsewhere:

Like Alice stepping through the looking glass, Joan's girls moved into another dimension. Into time.

This book on the topic of time was preceded during 1956 by a lecture entitled Repeat Pattern on the recurrent nature of time which Lindsay presented to The Catalysts group at the professional women's Lyceum Club, Melbourne (O'Neil 2009). In a 1974 interview Lindsay also talks of a belief in the fluidity of time, unknowingly similar to that previously expressed in quantum theory by Albert Einstein.

The topic undoubtedly was brought to her consciousness by the fact that in everyday life she stopped time by stopping clocks and watches. In addition, to Lindsay, time could be disregarded, outside of its natural passage from morning to night, and she therefore had little care for it in her life, describing her view as follows:

I've been terribly interested in time, always. I always felt that it was something that was all round one, not just in a long line in a calendar. I feel that one's in the middle of time, and that the past, present and future is really all around, and that I'm in the middle of it, which is a very unscientific way of describing it. I have an extraordinary gift, you might call it, or a very sinister one, of being able to stop people's watches just by sitting besides them. (Lindsay 1974)

Joan Lindsay Interview, circa 1974, The Eldritch Archives, YouTube, duration: 14.17 minutes.

Lindsay apparently experienced a 'time slippage' event at Hanging Rock during that summer of 1900 when she was aged four. The 1929 vision of the nuns running across a field, fleeing from their burning convent, is another example of time slip, with the past appearing as the present.

Within the book we see that, whilst on the mountain, the girls look down and, according to an analyses by Helen Goltz and Eric Wargo, they see events below out of their normal time order. That is, they see past, present and future occurrences, such as aspects of the search for them carried out of the following days (Goltz 2017, Wargo 2018).

The plain below was just visible; infinitely vague and distant. Peering down between the boulders Irma could see the glint of water and tiny figures coming and going through drifts of rosy smoke, or mist. ‘Whatever can those people be doing down there like a lot of ants?’ Marion looked out over her shoulder. ‘A surprising number of human beings are without purpose. Although it’s probable, of course, that they are performing some necessary function unknown to themselves.’ … The ants and their business dismissed without further comment. Although Irma was aware, for a little while, of a rather curious sound coming up from the plain. Like the beating of far-off drums. (Lindsay 1967)

Whilst Adams' solution to the mystery is novel, like all such solutions it is also disconnected from the novel by the fact that Lindsay did not write it. In fact, she did not write any solution, apart from what is in the book and the deleted chapter 18. Rather then subject the mystery to conjecture, at the end of the day we can only base any conclusion on what the author has specifically, or even vaguely, told us.

Another time-related solution to the mystery was provided by author Barbara Gurney in the novel Road to Hanging Rock: Trapped - at the mercy of time (Gurney 2013). Therein she proposes that Miranda and Marion were trapped in another time, long past and prior to the arrival of Europeans in Australia. Therein they have difficulty in surviving and are not assisted by the local Aboriginal people. Miranda subsequently dies. Around this scenario is woven a narrative whereby two present-day people encounter the time aberration and one of them - Michael - ends up living with Marion. Whilst the book is obviously influenced by Joan Lindsay's experiences and statements regarding the fluidity of time, the solution offered to the mystery does not address all the aspects presented by the author in the original Picnic at Hanging Rock. As far as this author is aware, it is the first and only known fictional sequel.

Does the fluidity of time affect our argument regarding the faërie realm? No, not really, for time dilation is a common feature of encounters with that dimension. People talk of brief faërie encounters which often turn out to have occupied extended periods of time, or vice versa. The fact that Lindsay does not specifically refer to the faërie realm in the disappearance in those terms does not negate its applicability. Neither does the time slippage and Adams' suggestion of a time dimension adequately answer the question of where the schoolgirls and the teacher ended up. We are nevertheless left with a number of unanswered questions: What is meant by 'time slippage', and what precisely is the time dimension? Is it a physical dimension where one can exist, as in the normal earthly realm? Or is it merely entry into the faërie realm, a separate dimension? The latter seems more likely, based on what Joan Lindsay presented within the book, including chapter 18.

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Picknick am Valentinstag [Picnic on St. Valentine's Day], German movie poster, 1989 re-release.

8. A dream within a dream

Picnic at Hanging Rock was written quickly, after Lindsay had a particularly vivid dream, and it's a dream state that permeates the narrative. The characters fall in and out of sleep, daydreaming in a way that suggests they may have woken up in a different reality. (Ash 2019)

We are informed at the outset of Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock of the concept of a dream within a dream, and it turns out that that is precisely what Lindsay presents to us as part of the overall narrative structure. However, in this case, unlike Alice and her adventure in Wonderland, there is no waking up and returning to normality (Carroll 1865). Lindsay leaves us stuck inside the dream. But what is meant by this?

In the most famous fantastical dream of literature, Lewis Carroll takes us on a journey, whereby the young Alice falls asleep by the side of a river, and dreams of following a rabbit down a hole into a wonderland of strange characters and experiences. She eventually wakes up from her dream. Lindsay, on the other hand, takes us on a journey with a group of schoolgirls, two teachers and a coachmen, to a picnic at the mysterious Hanging Rock. Around midday the clocks stop, the girls fall asleep, and we are now under the influence of the faërie realm. One of the girls - Miranda perhaps - has a dream in which she and three friends head off to explore. They are later followed by one of the teachers. Miranda's dream is in many ways as lucid and fantastical as Alice's, though not as long. The book ends with her, Marion and the crab form of Miss McCraw entering a hole in the ground. Where Alice's adventure begins at that point, Miranda and her colleagues' ends. As readers, we remain trapped inside that dream - a dream within a dream.

Back in 1966 Lindsay may have had what is known today as a series of lucid dreams, whereby one wakes up inside the dream, realizes they are dreaming, and seeks to impact the course of the dream. She may thereby had affected its outcomes, bringing in to place real events from her life - which would automatically have been part of the original dream - connecting them, and turning them into a coherent narrative as she slept, though without complete control of the dream therein. Upon waking, it was then a simple task of putting pen to paper and returning to the lucid dream state each night. At the end of a week or two she had a complete novel to present to the publishers. Lucid dreaming is a heightened state of consciousness, as both the dreaming and conscious parts of the brain are active (Waggoner 2023).

This is pure conjecture of course, but once again based on clues given us by the author. Miranda, during the picnic, refers to dreaming on a number of occasions. Anne Stackpole, in a published film studies essay, writes on the connection between time and dreaming in the book and Weir film (Stackpole 2017).

There is also the possibility that Miranda was not unknowingly taken into some dream-like faërie realm, but had a precognition of the events to come that afternoon. She, and Marion, asked to go and explore the Rock; she was the one who lead the way; and she was the one who, at that final moment of departure from the group, stopped, turned her shining head and gravely smiled at Mademoiselle.... A short time later, as the group were about to climb the mountain, Miranda was observed by the following Michael who ....saw, for the first time, her grave and lovely face.

Why grave, which implies a serious or solemn matter, and cause for alarm? Up to that point Miranda had been light, happy, bubbly and very much enjoying this opportunity to engage with the nature she had so much enjoyed during her life to date, especially at home on the farm in Queensland, with its forests .... ferns and birds. What is Lindsay hinting at here? Was Miranda aware of the danger she was leading her friends into, and that they may never return?

William Ford, At the Hanging Rock, 1875, National Gallery of Victoria. Miranda: I remember my father showing me a picture of people in old-fashioned dresses having a picnic at the Rock. I wish I knew were it was painted.

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Italian edition, 1983.

9. Martin Sharp, Botticelli & Tchaikovsky

During 1974 Australian artist Martin Sharp (1942-2013) was selected by Peter Weir to be an advisor on the film version of Picnic at Hanging Rock. It was later noted by co-producer Jim McElroy, in a 2004 documentary on its making entitled A Dream within a Dream, that Sharp's knowledge of the film was at that stage absolutely encyclopedic. It is possible he became aware of the book when it was first published at the end of 1967, and in England shortly thereafter. At the time Sharp was resident in London and visiting the great art museums and galleries of Europe. The collage-style dust jacket and modern, psychedelic font of the original Australian edition of Picnic at Hanging Rock would also have caught his eye. Sharp had returned to Sydney by 1971 and when the production began he encouraged 17 year old Karen Robson to read for the part of Irma, in which she was successful. Robson recalled in a later interview how Sharp had found the poem A Dream Within A Dream in a piano stool at Martindale Hall and suggested to Weir that it be included. As a result, Miranda states it at the opening of the film. Sharp commented in the documentary:

I was fascinated by the book, and saw this other thread of mythology running through it (Sharp 2004).

That other thread included both the mystical faërie aspects referred to above, and artistic motifs, such as elements of the work of Italian Early Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli (c.1445-1510). Sharp brought these thoughts and images to the attention of Weir, who noted:

.... a whole kind of structure within the book, that was really quite apart from the linear story and certain sort of mystical connections in it, particularly with Botticelli's Angel and the Birth of Venus (Weir 2004).

Sandro Botticelli, Angel of Annunciation [detail], 1481.

Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, 1484-1486. Collection: Uffizzi Gallery, Florence, Italy.

[Michael's] ear caught the splash of water coming from the direction of the lake, where a girl in a white dress was standing beside a giant clam-shell that served as a birdbath, under an oak.

The superficial Botticelli connection can be traced to the inclusion of the reference in the original text, and the subsequent film, wherein Mademoiselle de Poitiers refers to her as a Botticelli angel as she walks away from the picnic party on the journey up Hanging Rock:

'Mon Dieu!' [Mademoiselle de Poitiers] exclaimed to the empty blue, 'now I know ...' It simply wasn't possible to explain to Miss McCraw of all people her exciting discovery that Miranda was a Botticelli angel from the Uffizzi... (Lindsay 1967)

This reference to the Uffizzi Gallery in Florence, Italy, naturally suggests the artist;s most famous work which is housed there, namely The Birth of Venus. Mademoiselle's knowledge, or indeed first-hand memory, of the work would have been reinforced upon her arrival at Appleyard College when she noted the twin statues which graced the building's ground floor grand entrance stairway, and where Venus, with one hand strategically placed upon her marble belly, gazed through the landing window at her namesake pendant above the dim lawns. de Poitiers realisation regarding Miranda is stated so emphatically - Mon Dieu! [My God!] - that one can believe the French teacher actually had a vision of her as an angel with wings, having just previously noted that she glided through the gasses, as though floating on air (Abbott 2014).

This would be the last time Miranda was seen in public. However, Lindsay provides throughout the book hints suggesting a subsequent fate. She presents the missing Miranda as the white swan seen in the dreams, nightmares and waking thoughts that haunted Michael Fitzhubert, both prior to, and following the disappearance (Barclay 2020). He initially saw her as a white swan fording the creek near the picnic ground, en route to the mountain top with the other three girls. During his stay at Lake View, and following the disappearance, Michael had a number of visions of, and encounters with, a white swan, including a transformation. Some of these are presented below. The vision of a nautilus clam shell was also shared with Miranda, who saw it in relation to Marion.

[Michael wondered:] What was her name, the tall pale girl with straight yellow hair, who had gone skimming over the water [of the creek] like one of the white swans on his uncle's lake? [24]

Miranda ..... awoke and watched [beetles] hurrying to safety under loose bark. In the colourless twilight every detail stood out, clearly defined and separate .... Everything if only you could see it clearly enough, is beautiful - the ragged nest, Marion's torn muslin skirts fluted like a nautilus shell .... [31]

[Michael observed] On a patch of lily pads a single white swan was standing on one coral leg, now and then sending out showers of concentric ripples across the surface of the lake. [60]

The white swan, poised all this time on the lily pad, now chose to stretch one pink leg and then the other and go flapping across the lake towards the opposite bank. [63]

"Ah, they're pretty birds all right, them swans," Albert breathed. "Beautiful," Mike said... [64]

[Michael reminisced] Miranda, tall and fair, skimmed [the creek] like a white swan. [73]

When he woke, the room was in darkness except for a pale incandescent light given off by a white swan sitting on the brass rail at the end of his bed. Michael and the swan looked at each other without surprise until the beautiful creature slowly raised its wings and floated away through the open window. [95]

[Michael] decided to take a stroll down to the lake before dinner... already the sky was flecked with sunset clouds, the lake calm and lovely in the fading light.... [He] was walking unsteadily across the lawn when his ear caught the splash of water coming from the direction of the lake, where a girl in a white dress was standing beside a giant clam-shell that served as a birdbath, under an oak. The face was turned away, but he knew her at once by the poise of the titled fair head. He began running towards her with a sickening fear that she would be gone before he could reach her, as invariably happened in his troubled dreams. He was almost within touching distance of her muslin skirts when they became faintly quivering wings of a white swan attracted by the sparkling jet from the tap. When Mike sank down on the grass a few feet away, the swan rose almost vertically above the shell, and scattering showers of rainbow drops in its wake flew off over the willows on the other side of the lake. [116]

The oak where he had seen the swan drinking at the clam shell on a summer afternoon was naked to the sky. [158]

A deeper analysis of the swan motif was presented by Dr Daryl Barclay of the Australian Catholic University during 2020.

Barclay's presentation revealed further aspects of this mystical strand, including a link to the European fairy tale which gave rise to Tchaikovsky ballet Swan Lake, and the fact that in ancient mythology the swan is linked to the Greek god Venus. This latter link was picked up by Martin Sharp, especially that of the nautilus clam shell tying in with Botticelli's Birth of Venus. As a result, and upon a suggestion by Sharp, a scene was shot by Weir of a naked Miranda standing in a grotto replicating The Birth of Venus pose, though without the giant shell. It takes place during one of Michael's day dreams, wherein he is talking to a pining Irma and all the while realises his fateful, never to be fulfilled, attraction to Miranda. The scene never made the final cut. It would have been better placed in the Mademoiselle de Poitiers Mon Dieu! scene, rather than as an element of Michael's dream.

'Miranda is a Botticelli angel', PicnicAtHangingRockLocations, YouTube, 15 February 2021, duration: 0.15 minutes.

Co-producer Hal McElroy noted that Sharp played a significant role in set dressing, the creation of a 1900 era atmosphere, and generally bringing an extra level of finesse to every shot and every prop, and every broach, and hat and carriage, etc. Sharp also had impact in regard to the otherworldly nature of the story:

He helped imbue us all with a sense of there is something, there are other dimensions, there's something special about the story that perhaps we could have missed if Martin had not been there (McElroy 2004).

Janelle McCulloch mentions how Sharp had extensive conversations with Joan Lindsay at the time, and how, in an unpublished interview with Cathy Peake, a biographer of the writer, he stated:

She'd had some kind of profound experience at Hanging Rock as a young girl; some kind of experience that inspired the whole novel (McCulloch 2017b).

Sharp's set dressing included mementos of the era and the construction of a collage manuscript book for Sara Waybourne that reflected the story. That collage work included Botticelli images and cut up St Valentine's Day cards from Joan Lindsay's family collection - a process which resulted in an eventual falling out between the artist and aggrieved writer. Sharp had refined the collage aspect of his art during the 1960s and his English residence between 1966-68. His collage and scissor work would grace the pages of OZ magazine's Sydney and London editions between 1962-73, and a suite of psychedelic posters published by the Big O firm between 1967-72. Copyright-free Edwardian illustrations - coloured prints, black and white engravings, photographs - were his primary source, and a precursor to the world of Picnic at Hanging Rock that he would help Peter Weir recreate on film.

Sharp's own encounters with the faërie realm during his British sojourn were limited by his London residence, though he did tune into the UFO phenomena of the period, assisted as it was by the consumption of hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD which heightened his, and thousands of others. senses to paranormal and extra-dimensional realms. This no doubt freed the artist up to see the mystical elements of the novel, and the background given him first-hand by the author, especially when the original dust jacket featured a collage image by editor Sandra Forbes. He was also a fan of the faërie philosophy promulgated by Scottish pop artist Donovan, producing a poster which incorporated faërie motifs, including an image of perhaps the most famous British fairy of the time - Puck from William Shakespeare's A Mid Summer Night's Dream.

Martin Sharp, Sunshine Superman, 1967, poster.

Donovan's first album, issued is 1965, was called Fairy Tale and a recent live CD from 2017 entitled The Living Crystal Faery Realm continued this theme and the singer songwriter's connection with the faërie realm.

Donovan, The Living Crystal Faery Realm, CD, 2017.

The mix of faërie and psychedelia encountered by Sharp in England is reflected in the lyrics to a 1968 Cream song Anyone for Tennis written in London with his friend and co-tenant at the Pheasantry, Eric Clapton:

And the prophets in the boutiques give out messages of hope
With jingle bells and fairy tales and blind colliding scopes
And you can tell they're all the same underneath the pretty lies.
Anyone for tennis, wouldn't that be nice?

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10. Afterthought - Miranda Must Go!

The myth of vanishing white schoolgirls is obsessively retold, while the removal and displacement of Aboriginal people and cultures is actively ignored. (Amy Spiers 2017)

During 2017 a Miranda Must Go! campaign was got up by artist Amy Spiers in association with a PhD program, to bring an end to the Picnic at Hanging Rock missing school girls myth and restore the original Aboriginal mythology to the area, along with recognition of local Indigenous history. A number of supportive articles appeared, along with a Facebook page. The fate of the campaign is outlined here.

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11. The End

There was so much to be said, so little that ever could, or would be said.

Picnic at Hanging Rock is a beloved work. It has also been the subject of criticism on many fronts, both for what it said, or did not say, and what it represents. Many of those critics have got it wrong. Some belittle it by referring to it as merely a novella, a long short story. One recently called it a sparsely written, elegiac novel (Earp 2017). In actual fact, its 200 pages comprise a dense, complex, modern fairy tale. Another reviewer blindly declared that it was not born of some great, ancient evil, or an obscured horror, when, once again, the great, ancient evil is clearly Hanging Rock itself, and the obscured horror is the unrevealed, traumatic event - likely a malevolent encounter with faërie - embedded in the psyche of the child Joan Lindsay (O'Neil 2009).

The concept of faërie, and the associated faërie realm in which it exists, can be utilised to understand the framework allocated the book by its author. Why? Because the faërie realm explains much of the mystery and mystical elements present within Picnic at Hanging Rock. It is a dimension different to the normal human realm, though intersection can, and did, occur. The faërie realm exhibits changes in time and space, in the creatures present, and in the way in which it interacts with the human world. Lindsay, throughout her life, was aware of, and experienced encounters with, the faërie realm, the paranormal. She has used this experience, plus the reality of her own dimension, to re-construct a world which existed when she was aged around four (1900) and first became aware of the interdimensionality aspect of her life. It all coalesced in a series of consecutive dreams - lucid dreams - during 1966. Those fictional characters who went missing during a picnic at Hanging Rock on St. Valentine's Day 1900, had an encounter with the faërie realm; some escaped it (Edith), or returned from it largely unscathed (Irma), whilst others became trapped within it (Miranda, Marion and Miss McCraw).

For those who understand and believe in the existence of the faërie realm, and of other dimensions unlike the singular earthly one, the scenario presented in Picnic at Hanging Rock remains a mystery, though is entirely believable and acceptable. Joan Lindsay was one such person. Throughout her later life she exhibited behaviours, and made statements, which reinforced the belief that she had experienced something profound and tragic, or evil, in connection with Hanging Rock. That event was not of the normal earthly dimension, though remained very real to her. In her book she partially explains, or hints at, the fate of those who went missing. She does not, however, inform the reader of the final destination Miranda referred to. It is hinted at, or rather suggested, in both book and subsequent film, that Miranda's spirit later returned to Lake View, in the form of a white swan, a motif mentioned thirteen times in the book (Barclay 2020).

For those who reject faërie and the concept of a faërie realm, the mystery will forever remain so, plain and simply an accident, murder, abduction or escape from the tyrannical Mrs Appleyard, as will their cynicism regarding what the author presented to them. A good example was seen when researcher and journalist Janelle McCulloch was interviewed during 2017 by a male ABC radio presenter (McCulloch 2018a). As McCulloch first refers to Lindsay's abilities and reputation as a mystic, the presenter interjects, declaring her, and others like her, to be charlatans. In another interview around the same time, though on this occasion with a female ABC radio presenter, that aspect was treated more respectfully, and the author encouraged to be more expansive on the subject (McCulloch 2018b).

In another instance, editor and publisher Sophie Cunningham upon interview referred to Lindsay as "nutty" for writing chapter 18 (Cunningham & Ley 2015). She also felt that the final chapter "went against the tone of the rest of the book." Her interviewer in that instance went on to suggest that it was the perfect example of where a manuscript chapter required deletion. Veronique Rousseau, in her book The Murders at Hanging Rock, used the word "nonsense" in reference to those mystical aspects subsequently revealed by chapter 18 (Rousseau 1980). Undoubtedly the most arrogant of these assessments is by Brett Mackenzie. He states that he has specifically ignored chapter 18 in putting forth his solution, namely, that the three were simply buried under a rock slide - an event which actually closes out chapter 18, but not in the manner Mackenzie suggests. He ends his article with a rejection of any mystical or paranormal explanation, and the nonsensical claim that such would damage the reputation of an author who, as we have already seen, was accepted as a mystic by friends and had already published a book dealing with the subject of timeslips:

The mystery does not have to be explained using inconsistent, supernatural, or far-fetched reasoning! Attempts at doing this degrade the reputation of both Joan Lindsay and of the novel itself, which has charmed readers since 1967 (MacKenzie 2016).

A lack of respect for Lindsay's original work is shown here by these critical comments. A similar low regard prevails for the aspects of faërie - otherwise referred to as supernatural, mystical, paranormal - which she presents therein. All of this reflects the aforementioned lack of a faërie tradition in Australia, and the subsequent, perhaps inevitable, arrogance of those who have power in regards to altering that.

It is interesting to note that the original manuscript containing eighteen chapters has just one and a half dealing with the inter-dimensional faërie realm, whilst the remaining sixteen and a half take place within the normal, human dimension. It was this latter aspect of the book that received most comment, emphasis and promotion, with the mystical pushed to one side and meaningfully ignored by publisher and a large section of the readership. Queries regarding the mysterious disappearances therefore sought answers in the normal reality, such as that the girls and teacher all fell into a cave or hole on the mountain; that they were abducted and murdered; or that they ran off into town and began new lives elsewhere. Of course, none of them were found and there was, in fact, no evidence provided by the author for any of these scenarios. Why? Because the disappearance was not associated with the human realm of existence. Despite the claim that, apparently, the flaws of chapter eighteen are universally acknowledged, the present author would beg to differ (Conti 2018). Why? Because Joan Lindsay wrote it as the conclusion to her novel.

So, what did happen to the schoolgirls and their teacher? According to Lindsay, and as interpreted by the current author, the following summary of events presented in Picnic at Hanging Rock can only be explained by an encounter with the faërie realm. It is therefore presented as such:

The disappearance - a faërie reading

Midday, Saturday, 14 February 1900: Upon arrival at Hanging Rock, an intersection with the faërie realm takes place as an Appleyard College group of nineteen students and two teachers settle down to enjoy a picnic in the Australian bush. Within this realm time is fluid and subject to timeslips, where the past, present and future can blend together. One can also become trapped in a space without time, where the events of the encounter with faërie have no past or future, only a present, which is eternal. The author highlights this at the beginning of chapter 18.

At the picnic site, the entry into the faërie realm is marked by watches stopping at midday. A time slip can now take place.

2-4pm: Around 2pm a drowsiness overcomes the majority of the party. All eventually go to sleep except a group of four girls - three seniors, aged 17-18, a 14 year old junior, and a 45 year old teacher, Miss Greta McCraw. Shortly after 2pm the faërie unconsciously entice the four girls - Miranda, Marion, Irma and Edith - to enter further into their realm by scaling Hanging Rock. They are led by Miranda, who is most susceptible to faërie influence and in tune with their desires. She appears to float along the ground as she walks, very faërie or angel-like. Mademoiselle de Poitiers sees a vision of her as a Botticelli angel floating / flying away as she leaves the group. Miranda bears grave look upon her face, perhaps knowing she is never to return or see Mademoiselle again.

At some point after the girls leave the picnic ground, possibly around 3-4 pm, faërie entice Miss McCraw to also follow them, or follow some unknown faërie creature, perhaps a changeling or doppelganger in a form replicating her own. This occurs while the rest of the party are asleep. As a result, no one sees her depart, or are subsequently aware of any reason for her to do so.

As the girls walk through the bush along the lower reaches of Hanging Rock, the increasingly ominous nature of the faërie presence is felt by Edith, and to a lesser degree by Irma. Miranda leads the way, followed by Marion. They both walk in what, to Edith, seems like a partial trance, floating along the way. Edith, the youngest of the group, then sees a strange "nasty" red cloud in the distance, having previously stated whilst climbing that it's nasty here. This is evidence of a malevolent faërie force. She becomes increasingly hungry - associated with her stress - and scared.

The girls are followed by Michael, who sees them as they begin the climb up the mountain. He observes Miranda's grave expression.

5pm: Edith observes Miranda, in a dream-like state, walk off ahead, followed by the two others. After calling for the girls to stop, she gives up and and runs back down the mountain, horrified and screaming. Miss McCraw is not present around 5 o'clock in the late afternoon when all are awake and the disappearance alarm is first raised by Mademoiselle Poitiers. It is then reinforced by Edith's arrival shortly thereafter at the picnic site, screaming.

The three girls - Miranda, Marion and Irma - are now completely in the dimension of the faërie realm. They reach the top of Hanging Rock and from a prominent position look down from the height and see in a time slip some events from the immediate future - lots of people (ant-like) are searching for the missing girls and teacher. Irma hears the people making noises and beating drums. This is a precognition of the search party which will look for the girls over the days following their disappearance on the afternoon of St. Valentine's Day, Saturday, 14 February 1900.

As the girls reach the upper, rocky sections of Hanging Rock, they encounter a monolith which releases a strange energy. Marion and Miranda sway due to its effect, and Irma is less affected by it. Marion informs Irma that it feels like they are all spiralling on the edge of a cone. Shortly thereafter they move on and the effect wanes. However, they are then subjected by faërie to drowsiness, and fall into a deep sleep on a rock platform.

Meanwhile, as Miss McCraw walks along the girls path on the lower level of the Rock, she takes off all her outer garments - clothes, cape, hat, etc., though these are never found. At some point she is seen in this disrobed, underwear-only state by Edith who is running towards the picnic ground screaming. At the point in the path where the girls began their climb, Miss McCraw disappears into the faërie realm, and her tracks stop. Thereafter, her faërie changeling / doppelganger form is created. This creature then seeks to enter the realm in which the girls are located, and push through from its own faërie realm.

6pm: Possibly around 6pm, the three girl awaken in a colourless twilight, with Miranda first. As Miranda is standing on the rock platform, a strange figure - the faërie changeling in the form of a woman - is propelled flying from the surrounding bush, and falls at her feet. The stranger then exclaims 'Through ... through', thereby indicating she has broken through into the girl's realm. At this point all four are now in a similar part of the faërie realm.

As the half-dressed stranger lies on the ground, breathing heavily, the girls loosen and remove her corset. They then decide to do the same. They take off their corsets and throw them the ground. Miranda then throws all four off the cliff. However, the corsets are then seen suspended the air, not having fallen to the bottom. This points to their presence in the faërie realm, where time and space are subject to dilation and distortion. The stranger tells the girls that the corsets are stuck fast in time. The stranger then asks them their names, having forgotten hers. There is no response.

Irma raises the issue of the failing light, but the stranger points out that they are now in a place where there are no shadows, and they are heading towards a destination - caves - bathed in light. Miranda supports this claim, radiating positive energy and aware of where they are going to, though nothing has been said in that regard.

Marion feels they have nevertheless arrived and a spinning motion overcomes her. She then stops and observes a hole in the air before her - a ball-like portal. A brown snake then reappears and Miranda and Marion squat down to touch it, before it slides away into a hole, or cave, in the ground, beneath vines and leaves.

The stranger entices them to follow here into the hole or cave and the light, away from the darkness of the twilight. The entry is exposed and the stranger partially transforms into a crab-like creature in order to enter. Miranda and Marion excitedly follow. Irma waits outside for their return, questioning why they left and starting to cry. A landslide of dirt and boulder eventually covers the hole in the ground. Irma tries to dig away at the material with her hands, before eventually falling asleep on the rock platform.

At some point she is removed from the faërie realm. Time passes slowly for her whilst in this realm - perhaps about about 8 hours, or the length of one night, from twilight to dawn. However, outside of this realm almost it a week has passed.

Following the disappearance, Michael has dream-like visions of Miranda and her transformation into a white swan.

During Friday night Michael camps on the Rock. Early the next morning he travels to the upper most peak and encounters Irma on a rock platform, just past the monolith. The faërie realm is still in play and he is is put in a trance and removed to the lower slopes where, whilst he attempts to write a note, he collapses. He is found the next day by his friend Albert, who had interpreted the mote as indicating that he had found something. Irma is located on Sunday morning, now no longer in the faërie realm. Upon returning to Lake View she either completely forgets what happened to her, or does not believe it and will to repeat it, or is not willing to tell anyone the truth of what she remembers, fearful of the reception she will receive if she reveals the fantastical nature of the encounter. She tells Michael:

Whether we talk of it or not, that horrible thing is always in my mind ..... always and always.

This indicates Irma obviously remembers something. When she briefly returns to the school on the afternoon of Thursday, 19 March, she is physically, verbally and mentally attacked and abused by a large group of students, lead by Edith, reinforcing her decision to remain mute on what happened on Hanging Rock. Edith likewise remembers little, or reveals little, and is therefore unable to explain the disappearance of the girls and teacher. The mystery therefore remains.....

Miranda stopped, turned her shining head and gravely smiled at Mademoiselle....

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12. Chronology

The following is a chronology of events as presented by Joan Lindsay in the published book and chapter 18 of Picnic at Hanging Rock. Therein it is stated that they took place in 1900, however the dates align with the 1903 calendar.

1900 [1903]

February

* Saturday, 14th

- All the Appleyard College students (except for Sara Waybourne), and numbering nineteen, along with two teachers (de Poitiers and McCraw) and a coachman (Hussey), travel to Hanging Rock for a picnic.

- they arrive around lunch time (midday).

- c.2pm three of the students leave the group. The rest of the group fall asleep.

- c.3pm Michael and Albert sees the girls cross the creek. Michael follows them for a short way and is later called back by Albert. They both leave the picnic grounds at 4pm.

- c.4pm Miss McCraw leaves the group. Everyone else is asleep and nobody sees her leave.

- c.5pm the alarm is raised over the missing girls and Miss McCraw. It is heightened when Edith returns screaming. A search is begun.

--c.7pm after a fruitless search the group leave Hanging Rock.

- 7.30pm the Fitzhubert's arrive at Lake View.

- 10.30pm picnickers arrival at Appleyard College.

* Sunday, 15th

- the search begins at Hanging Rock for the missing students and teacher.

- coach driver Ben Hussey provides a statement to Constable Bumpher re events on Saturday.

* Monday 16th

- the official search by the police, trackers and members of the local community continues through to Thursday.

- media begin contacting the College for information.

Tuesday, 17th

- Michael and Albert submit statements to police.

Wednesday, 18th

- Police, de Poitiers and Edith return to Hanging Rock. Edith remembers seeing Miss McCraw go past her up the mountain and clad only in her underwear, without toque (hat), pelisse (ankle-length and long sleeved dress) and gloves.

- Mrs Appleyard writes to the parents of those missing.

* Friday, 20th

- Michael and Albert travel to Hanging Rock to continue the search on their own. Michael stays overnight.

* Saturday, 21st

- early in the morning Michael searches the upper part of the Rock. He locates Irma but is overcome by a strange force and sent into a daze. He walks back down the mountain, writes part of a note stating the find, and then collapses.

- Albert travels to Hanging Rock and discovers Michael, unconscious. He takes Michael home.

* Sunday, 22nd

- Albert deciphers Michael's note and rushes to Hanging Rock where he locates Irma. She is stretchered out and moved to Lake View house to recuperate.

March

* early March - Mrs Appleyard visits police headquarters in Melbourne; art teacher Mrs Valange argues with Appleyard over art lessons for Sara Waybourne and quits; things get grim during final weeks before the Easter break.

* Friday, 13th

- Irma is questioned by police at Lake View.

* Thursday, 19th

- Irma visits the college and is attacked by a group of students, verbally abused by Mrs Appleyard, and consoled by Mademoiselle de Poitiers.

Saturday 21st

- Mrs Appleyard likely murders Sara Waybourne by pushing her off the school tower, with her body landing in the garden shed below.

* Sunday, 22nd

- Mrs Appleyard tells Mademoiselle de Poitiers that Sara had been taken away that morning by her guardian Jasper P. Cosgrove. This is a lie. She hides a basket of Sara's things in her room. Her hands shake. (15)

* Monday, 23rd

- News of the death of the Lumleys in a fire is announced at the College.

* Tuesday, 24th

- letter by Mademoiselle de Poitiers to police constable Bumpher regarding concerns over the fate of Sara Waybourne. Alice lies to de Poitiers about giving Sara breakfast on Sunday.

- Sara's guardian Jasper Cosgrove writes from Melbourne to Mrs Appleyard regarding Sara and his impending visit.

* Wednesday, 25th

- the last students leave the college for Easter break.

- Mrs Appleyard has dinner with Mademoiselle de Poitiers and Miss Buck.

* Thursday, 26th

- Mrs Appleyard receives a letter from Sara's guardian, saying he will be coming to pick her up on the upcoming Easter Saturday, the 28th.

- Mrs Appleyard travels to Woodend where she gets Mr Hussey to take her to Hanging Rock. She commits suicide by jumping off a precipice.

* Friday 27th (Good Friday)

- statement by Edward Whitehead, gardener at Appleyard College, regarding the behaviour of Mrs Appleyard the previous day.

- statement by Ben Hussey regarding the suicide of Mrs Appleyard on that date.

--------------------

13. Historical research

The following are some references which present the findings of historical research undertaken into the mystery of Hanging Rock subsequent to the release of Peter Weir's film. They point to elements of Joan Lindsay's personal experiences and historic knowledge that were likely used by her - consciously or unconsciously - in the writing of Picnic at Hanging Rock.

Newspaper reports

* The Canberra Times, Monday, 17 November 1975:

Picnic tragedy: true or false?

Did two schoolgirls and their eccentric maths teacher really disappear without trace at Hanging Rock, a 153-metre volcanic outcrop near the town of Woodend in Victoria, on Saturday, February 14, 1900? Joan Lindsay in her book says, "Whether 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' 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 important". Here are some interesting points: there were no newspaper reports of any such incident at that time; Valentine's Day in 1900 fell on a Wednesday, not a Saturday; and there was no ladies' college in the area until 19 years later. It is also interesting to note there is a painting by William Ford called 'Picnic Day at Hanging Rock' in the National Gallery of Victoria, where Joan Lindsay's husband, Sir Daryl Lindsay, was director from 1942 until 1956.

Valentine's Day happens to be the Lindsays' wedding anniversary, and Joan has a collection of Valentine's Day cards dating back to her childhood. In the story, everyone's watch stops at midday. It is said that Joan Lindsay cannot wear a watch because it stops on her wrist, and she has this effect on the watches of her friends. She believes all time, past, present and future, coexists: could this be a clue to the disappearance of the schoolgirls and their teacher? Like Alice stepping through the looking glass, have they moved into another dimension? The research into the mystery of the 'Picnic at Hanging Rock was prompted by a query received at one of Canberra Public Library Service's branches. The search involved the book itself, newspapers and magazines, current and past, and contact with the National Library of Australia, the State Library of Victoria, and the Mitchell Library in Sydney. Most reference queries do not require such elaborate investigations; many can be answered on the spot from library stock. Queries which cannot be satisfactorily answered at the branch libraries are referred to the Reader Services Section of the Central Library, Kingston. Contributed by an officer of the Canberra Public Library Service.

-----------------------

* Brian Jeffrey, The Canberra Times, 14 September 1980:

Challenging solutions to 'Hanging Rock'.

It is now 13 years since Joan Lindsay's novel 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' first appeared, and five years since Peter Weir's film adaptation acquainted an even wider audience with the story. Today, few people will not be familiar with the basic plot concerning a small party of schoolgirls which disappears under mysterious circumstances during a St Valentine's Day excursion to Hanging Rock, Victoria, in 1900. Many will, at some time or other, have speculated on a solution to the mystery. Joan Lindsay is on record as saying that she does not think the mystery's solution matters at all. "I think what happened", she says, "is much more important than why". But when author Yvonne Rousseau read the book, she was "so overcome with superstitious horror, that I was forced to exert myself, and to sketch out the main points of the novel's detective-analysis". 'The Murders at Hanging Rock' presents four different explanations of what may have happened at the Rock, although Ms Rousseau is quick to point out that her book is truly dedicated "to the serious lovers of Nonsense itself'. The explanations rely on a wide range of possibilities — from physics to metaphysics, from Aboriginal folklore to sexual molestation. One point the author clears up early in the piece is that 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' is not based on fact. Saint Valentine's Day 1900 did not even fall on a Saturday, as it does in the novel, and newspapers of the day report no disappearances or even temporary losses at Hanging Rock on St Valentine's Day or at any other time — between 1897 and 1905. But could it be, suggests Ms Rousseau, that the events in the novel did take place, only in a universe parallel to our own? Could Joan Lindsay have penetrated, unwittingly, some psychic barrier, enabling her to transcribe a record of those events? She has, after all, described how her work "just came to me. I never had to think a moment about what any of the characters were called. They simply sprang to life, ready. I just had to write them down". Turning to the disappearance of the girls, the author suggests a number of explanations, one of which is that they could have been punished by spirits for trespassing on an Aboriginal sacred site. But the explanation which held most appeal for me — though I did not find it totally convincing - was that the girls were the victims of some "human agency", most likely Mike and Albert. She indulges in some painstaking analysis of the novel to demonstrate how the girls could have been the victims of abduction, rape and murder. She deftly explains away how, for example, when Irma is recovered from the Rock, she can still be "unblemished and virginal", with bafflingly clean bare feet and an unemaciated body. If nothing else, the reader of Ms Rousseau's "explanations" becomes aware of what a concisely-written work Joan Lindsay's novel is. Such a realisation lends all the more intrigue to Ms Rousseau's observations. For example, what significance, if any, has the repeated reference to caramels? On the way to the picnic, Irma offers them to the coachman, and, several days later, Albert offers them to policeman Grant. Coincidence? Or a clue to the conceit of Albert's criminal mind? Students of the novel — and those readers fascinated by symbolism and other subtleties — will find Ms Rousseau's hypotheses challenging and well worth a browse; if only for the love of Nonsense....

---------------------

* Debbie Cameron, The Canberra Times, 14 February 1987:

Hanging Rock was to have kept its secret until today

The 87th anniversary of the St Valentine's Day disappearance of three school girls and their maths mistress. But the secret got out. With only one day to go before the anniversary, the secret is for sale. The celebration of the mystery - the sealed envelope, the pre-publicity and tonight's official launch at a school within sight of the rock - is now almost irrelevant. Picnic at Hanging Rock was written by Joan Lindsay and first published in 1967. The last chapter, chapter 18, was withheld by the author and not to be published until after her death. The movie, directed by Peter Weir came out in 1975, It did not depict the events of the last chapter, and there has been much speculation about it since. Joan Lindsay died in 1984 and the publisher was to publish the last chapter today. A spokeswoman for Angus and Robertson said that the company was embarrassed and very disappointed. It was a Black Friday. She said the book had gone on sale around Australia a day early against the company's wishes. In Canberra, the book was being sold at Collins Booksellers. The publishers could not stop it. "There is nothing we can do about it ... we can't embargo the sale of books until the launch, but we had not expected booksellers to start selling," the Angus and Robertson spokeswoman said. "[Booksellers] are just interested in selling as many books as they can. . . we are disappointed but that is the way it goes." The last chapter - chapter 18 - has 12 pages. And it is every bit as baffling as the 17 that go before it. When the final chapter opens, Edith Horton has run from the "nasty" rock and passed the mathematics teacher, Miss McCraw, on her way towards the top, wearing only her underclothes. Miss McCraw gets to the top but Miranda, Marion and Irma either don't recognise her or don't remember her name. She says she will take the girls into the "light" and transforms herself into a crab, the kind "that inhabits mud-caked billabongs" and leads Marion and then Miranda down a small rock tunnel. Two large boulders seal the entrance. Irma is left behind. "Irma had flung herself down on the rocks and was tearing and beating at the gritty face of the boulder with her bare hands. She had always been clever at embroidery. They were pretty little hands, soft and white." A commentary on chapter 18, written by Yvonne Rousseau, the author of The Murders at Hanging Rock, is published with the final chapter. She writes: "My own explanation of chapter 18's apparent anomalies will invoke the Australian Aboriginal model of the supernatural - which is translated in English as 'The Dreaming'". She says that Miss McCraw, Miranda and Marion had "dreaming" totems that allowed them another incarnation, and Irma's Jewishness prevented her from having a totem and explains the emphasis on her "white" hands: "perhaps this defines her again as unAboriginal - a foreigner." Rousseau says that chapter 18 is not a trivial explanation that some people feared. It adds to the Hanging Rock mystique. "Joan Lindsay's original intention is finally disclosed — but her intention was not to dissolve the mystery. The picnic geography is clarified, but the eeriness remains."

-------------------

Videos

* 9 June 2020, Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay, Strange and Scary Story Talk, YouTube, duration: 32.31 minutes. Outlines the story of the book, dealing with the force that permeates Hanging Rock and the additional elements of chapter 18.

* 4 October 2020, Spirit Box #36 / Joshua Cutchin 'Thieves in the Night', Spirit Box, YouTube, duration: 79/14 minutes.

* 7 July 2020, Ask a Librarian: Picnic at Hanging Rock, State Library of Victoria, YouTube, duration: 6.33 minutes.

* 31 August 2021, Visiting the mysterious Hanging Rock, Back to Nature, YouTube, duration: 3.05 minutes.

* 14 February 2022, (de)Based on True Stories, Monster Talk, YouTube, duration: 64.17 minutes.

* 21 June 2023, The Geological Oddity in Australia: Hanging Rock, GeologyHub, YouTube, duration: 4 minutes.

----------------------

14. References

Abbott, Megan, Picnic at Hanging Rock: What we see and what we seem, The Criterion Collection [blog], 20 June 2014.

Adams, Phillip, Into Another Dimension, The Age, Melbourne, 1 November 1975.

-----, The Unspeakable Adams, Nelson, West Melbourne, 1977, 63–8.

Andrews, Ted, Enchantment of the Faerie Realm: Communicate with Nature Spirits & Elementals, Llewellyn Publications, Minnesota, 1993, 216.

Ash, Romy, On the unpublished end of Picnic at Hanging Rock, and other mysteries, Literary Hub [blog], 15 November 2019.

Barclay, Daryl, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Joan Lindsay. Episode 1: The Swan Motif, Australian Catholic University, YouTube, 2 April 2020, duration: 33.30 minutes.

Barrett, Donald, Picnicking with E.M . Forster, Joan Lindsay, et al., Hokus, James Cook University, 1980.

Blacker, Carmen, Supernatural abductions in Japanese Folklore, Asian Folklore Studies, 26(2), 1967, 111-147.

Blandowski, W. v., Australia Terra Cognita, Melbourne, 1855. Thirty line engravings.

Bushell, Maureen, A Storm in a Tea-cup: the solution to the mystery of Hanging Rock, Mermaid Publishing, Coorparoo, 1993.

Cahill, Jo, Hanging Rock, Victoria, Australia, Beyond the Lamp Post [blog], 3 July 2017.

Carroll, Lewis, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Macmillan & Co., London, 1865.

Chang, Mahalia, The true story behind Picnic at Hanging Rock, Elle Australia, 8 May 2018.

Christian, Fairy Faith, Fairy Fear (Part 1): Folkloric Reconstructions, The Hidden Passage, YouTube, 27 March 2023, duration: 25.18 minutes, Part 2: Evolution of Belief; Part 3: The Question of Existence.

Conti, Chris, Did it really happen? Picnic at Hanging Rock, Sydney Review of Books, 29 September 2017.

Creswell-Myatt, Nadine, Mysterious pull of Hanging Rock, Weekend Notes, 10 July 2012.

Cunningham, Sophia and James Ley, Australian Literature 102: Joan Lindsay - Picnic at Hanging Rock, Wheeler Center, 27 January 2015, YouTube, duration: 57.50 minutes.

Cutchin, Joshua, Thieves in the Night: A Brief History of Supernatural Child Abductions, Anomalist Books, 2018, 470p.

Davis, Jay, Picnic at Hanging Rock, What I got 2 say [blog], 3 March 2009.

Dormer, Natalie (a), Natalie Dormer and the 'Creatives' behind Picnic at Hanging Rock, YouTube, 3 May 2018, duration: 6.33 minutes.

----- (b), [Interview], YouTube, 18 May 2018, duration: 27.52 minutes.

Earp, Joseph, How White Australia and Picnic at Hanging Rock have tarnished the legacy of a sacred Aboriginal site, The Brag [blog], 26 April 2017.

Eddy, Cheryl, The original Picnic at Hanging Rock is the dreamiest nightmare ever, Gizmodo: The future is here [blog], 24 April 2018.

Edward, Louise, Picnic at Hanging Rock: A mystery still unsolved, Daily Telegraph, Sydney, 2 April 2017.

Lobiesk, Cassandra, Fae Folk: The World of the Fae [webpage], Fae Folk, 2015.

Faery, Michael, Dream within a Dream, Mobius Publishing, 2010, 209p.

Firth, Sarah L., Fact and fiction in Lindsay's Picnic at Hanging Rock, Master of Education thesis, University of Melbourne, 1990, 83p.

Gibson, Suze, The embrace of ambiguity in Joan Lindsay's Picnic at Hanging Rock and Henry James's Turn of the Screw, Antipodes, 33(1), 2019.

Gill, Ian, Mystery and history at Hanging Rock, Weekend Notes, 20 June 2013.

Goltz, Helen, No picnic at Hanging Rock, Atlas Productions, 2017, 202p.

Green, Cliff, Picnic at Hanging Rock - A Film [film script / screenplay], F.W. Cheshire, Melbourne, 1975. Based on the novel by Joan Lindsay.

Gurney, Barbara, Road to Hanging Rock: Trapped - At the Mercy of Time, Jasper Books, 2016, 254p.

Guthrie, Georgina, Discover the secret ending to Picnic at Hanging Rock, Little White Lies [blog], 21 June 2018.

Hanging Rock, Macedon Ranges Shire Council, n.d.

Harkins-Cross, Rebecca, The Shadow of the Rock, Island Magazine, 141, July 2015.

Healy, Tony and Paul Cropper, Out of the Shadows: Mystery Animals of Australian, Ironbark, Pan Macmillan, Chippendale, 1994, 200p.

Illert, Chris R., John Murphy and Michael Organ, The Traditional Aboriginal Languages of southeastern Australia: Who was right - P.G. King or C.Darwin?, Parts 1-3, 2021, 114p.

Kirk, Robert, The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies, 1692 [1815], 74p.

Lang, Andrew (editor), The Yellow Fairy Book, Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1894.

-----, The Orange Fairy Book, Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1906, 358p.

Lindsay, Joan, Papers of Joan Lindsay (manuscripts),c.1920-84, 5 metres / 43 boxes, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne. For a brief listing see under Padmore, Catherine.

-----, Picnic at Hanging Rocks (typescripts), 1966-7, National Library of Australia, Canberra. Contains chapters 1, 2, 4,6 and 7 (part only).

-----, The Passing of Saint Valentine, The Home, 1 February 1930, 48–9.

-----, A Run Round the Adriatic, The Courier Mail, Brisbane, 27 November 1937.

----- (a), Time without Clocks, Cheshire Publishing, 1962, 224p; ibid., Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2020.

----- (b), Author who writes to please herself, The Age, Melbourne, 1 November 1962.

-----, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Cheshire Publishing, Melbourne, 1967.

Dust jacket art & design: Sandra Forbes, F.W. Cheshire Publishing, 1967.

-----, Interview, circa 1974, The Eldritch Archives, YouTube, duration: 14.17 minutes.

-----, Joan Lindsay [Obituary], The Weekend Australian, 2-3 February, 1985.

-----, Lindsay, Joan, John Taylor and Yvonne Rousseau, The Secret of Hanging Rock, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1987, 48p; ETT Print, 2021, 2023, 40p. German and French editions also published by ETT Print during 2023.

Luck, Coleman, Is there a fairy/alien connection?, Thorncrown Studios, YouTube, 12 February 2022, duration: 22.48 minutes. Makes connections between faerie and aliens.

Mackenzie, Brett, The Solution to Joan Lindsay's Novel Picnic at Hanging Rock?, 2016.

Mannun, Episode 11 - The Faery Realm, Witch 'N the Working, YouTube, 2020, duration: 22.56 minutes.

McConville, Chris, Hanging Rock: A History, Friends of Hanging Rock, 2017, 264p.

McCulloch, Janelle (a), The extraordinary story behind Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Age, Melbourne, 30 March 2017.

----- (b), Beyond the Rock: The life of Joan Lindsay and the mystery of Picnic at Hanging Rock, Echo, Richmond, 2017, 208p.

Beyond the Rock: the story behind Picnic at Hanging Rock, Geckos and Gum Leaves, YouTube, 24 March 2018, duration: 20.09 minutes.

----- (a), Beyond the Rock: The story behind Picnic at Hanging Rock, ABC radio interview, Geckos and Gum Trees, YouTube, 24 March 2018, duration: 20.09 minutes.

----- (b), Janelle McCulloch on Hanging Rock, ABC radio interview, Geckos and Gum Trees, YouTube, 25 March 2018, duration: 20.27 minutes.

Meloy, Maile, What really happened to the girls in Hanging Rock?, Literary Hub, 27 November 2017.

O'Neil, Terence (a), Joan Lindsay: a time for everything, The Latrobe Journal, 83, May 2009.

----- (b), A bibliography of the works of Joan Lindsay, The Latrobe Journal, 84, December 2009.

Organ, Michael, Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines 1770 - 1850, Aboriginal Education Unit, University of Wollongong, 1990, cviii. 520p.

----- (a), Dead hobbits resurrected: the Barrow-wight encounter in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings [blog], The Author, Murrumburrah, 26 November 2022.

----- (b), Dr. Chris Illert's Proto-Australian Aboriginal language, [blog], The Author, Murrumburrah, 20 December 2022.

-----, Faerie in Australia - a history and discussion [blog], The Author, Murrumburrah, 29 June 2023.

Padmore, Catherine, 'Personal Exertion Literary J. Lindsay': Joan Lindsay Papers at State Library Victoria, La Trobe Journal, 103, 2019. 28-39

Palmer, Tracy, Picnic at Hanging Rock ending explained: Every theory explored, Signal Horizon, 2018.

Peake, Cathy, Papers of Cathy Peake relating to Joan and Daryl Lindsay 1889-1988 (manuscript), 1.5 metres / 10 boxes, National Library of Australia, Canberra.

Pictorial Hanging Rock: A Journey Through Time, Gisborne and Mount Macedon Distracts Historical Society, 2012, 100p.

Poe, Edgar Allan, A Dream Within a Dream, in R.W. Griswold (editor), The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe, J.S. Redfield, New York, 1850.

Roe, Steve, The Indigenous history of Hanging Rock, Daylesford Macedon Tourism, 28 April 2022.

Rousseau, Veronique, The Murders at Hanging Rock, Scribe, Fitzroy, 1980, 192p.

Shamas, Laura Annawyn (playwright), Picnic at Hanging Rock, Dramatic Pub Co.,1988. Theatrical adaptation of Joan Lindsay's original story.

Spence, Lewis, British Fairy Origins: The Genesis and Development of Fairy Legends in British Tradition, Watts & Co., London, 1946, 206p.

Spiers, Amy, Miranda Must Go! [website], 2017.

Stackpole, Anne, Dream within a dream: Time in Picnic at Hanging Rock, Anne Stackpole at the Movies [blog], 224 July 017.

Stewart, R.J., The Living World of Faerie, Mercury Publishing, New York, 1999, 244p.

Sweetwood, Dylan, Queer and Vow: the radical, revelatory queerness of Picnic at Hanging Rock, Medium [blog], 13 July 2018.

The Vagabond, At Kyneton, The Age, Melbourne, 16 September 1893.

Tolkien, J.R.R., The Lord of the Rings, George Allen & Unwin, London, 1954-5.

-----, On Fairy Stories [1939], Essays Presented to Charles Williams, Oxford University Press, 1947.

Waggoner, Robert, Four stages of creativity in lucid dreaming [audio], GlideWing Productions, YouTube, 21 July 2023, duration: 79.04 minutes. Audio of a 2020 conference presentation.

Wargo, Eric, Time loop at Hanging Rock, The Nightshirt - sightings, portents, forebodings and suspicions [blog], 28 June 2018.

Weir, Peter (director), Picnic at Hanging Rock, BEF Film Distributors, 1975, duration: 115 minutes. Director's cut 104 minutes.

Whalen, Kayley, Changelings and the folk history of autism, YouTube, 1 May 2023, duration: 16.36 minutes.

Wilkes, Kristen, Hanging Rock - Strategic Plan, Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, and Macedon Ranges Shire Council, Ethos Urban, 5 September 2018, 129p.

Wright, Miranda, Picnic [film script], Icypants Productions, 2015, 86p.

Wright, Tom (playwright), Picnic at Hanging Rock, Nick Hern Books, 2017, 96p. Theatrical adaptation of Joan Lindsay's original story.

Young, Simon (editor), The Fairy Census, 2014 - 2017 [ebook], Academia.edu, 8 January 2018, 408p.

----- and Houlbrook, Ceri, Magical Folk - The History of Fairies, Gibson Square, 2022, 288p.

Zoates, Toby, Encounter at Hanging Rock 1962 [email correspondence], 2 August 2023.

Picnic at Hanging Rock - The Special Edition, Fast Forward, 1989-92, YouTube, duration: 2.51 minutes. [Comedy skit]

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15. Acknowledgements

In the compilation of this article I would like to acknowledge all those authors and commentators listed in the references who have looked beyond the obvious, and delved into the mysterious, paranormal aspects of Joan Lindsay's life and work. It was gratifying to identify material which supports, and enhances, the present author's initial spark of interest in Picnic at Hanging Rock and realisation that faërie was an integral part of the series of dreams during 1966 which resulted in the book published the following year. Whilst the present author felt very much alone as he set out on this path, he was able to identify others who had tweaked to its mystical core, including individuals such as artist Martin Sharp and commentator Phillip Adams during the 1970s and, more recently, biographer Janelle McCulloch and blogger Eric Wargo. Vastly outnumbered by cynics and deniers who sought to adhere to the superficial, easy-to-digest, dreamy, romantic mystery aspect of the novel, the aforementioned offered a refreshing alternative vision of what happened at Hanging Rock - a vision which is surprisingly closer to that given us by the original author than any other comment or review. Mystery solved! Well, almost.....

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In an interview, Joan Lindsay said it's up to the reader to decide what happened to the missing girls. I like to think they entered the Otherworld, the land of faery, as sometimes happens in folk tales, especially those of Celtic origin (Anonymous in Davis 2009)

Last updated: 11 September 2023

Michael Organ, Australia 🇦🇺

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