Joan Lindsay, Author of ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ 1967, wrote a final chapter (chapter 18) that she agreed on being edited out by her publisher (and the film by Peter Weir in 1975) – as her scenes were deemed too difficult to visually construct for a director.
Chapter 18 explained what happened to the missing girls.
Book characters, Miranda and Marion were lead into an “opening”, following a clown/witch-snake-like spirit – leaving Irma by herself. Teacher Miss Greta McCraw also doesn’t return from the rock monolith.
Strange parts of the chapter include the girls freeing themselves from their corsets, feeling drowsy, and “arriving in the light”.
Picnic at Hanging Rock has been widely interpreted by many literary experts. Some explanations suggest it references Australian Aboriginal Dreamtime. It also uses timelessness, being stuck in time, prior time, present time and the future.
A six-part mini-series was recently shot around Victoria that aired on Foxtel (MAY 6) (also sold to the UK, France, Germany and the US) but doesn’t feature the infamous Chapter 18.
The full final chapter was published in ‘The Secret of Hanging Rock’ by Joan Lindsay. But it still alludes to the mystery of being somewhere in between fact and fiction.
The series debuted this year at the Berlin Film Festival to a sell-out theatre and New York’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Daylesford Macedon Tourism Ltd is the Regional Tourism Board for the Daylesford and Macedon Ranges region.

Eerie ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ Book Facts