Literature by Joan Lindsay – 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' | National Library of Australia (NLA)

About Joan Lindsay

Joan Lindsay (1896–1984), born Joan à Beckett Weigall in St Kilda, Melbourne, was the daughter of a musician and a prominent judge. From the age of 13, she attended a boarding school that was later renamed Clyde Girls’ Grammar School. The school was relocated to Macedon, near Hanging Rock, in 1919.

Lindsay studied art at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School, where she was taught painting by Bernard Hall and Frederick McCubbin. She exhibited her work in Melbourne and met fellow student Daryl Lindsay, one of five artistic siblings, including The Magic Pudding author Norman Lindsay.

Joan and Daryl married on Valentine’s Day in 1922 in England and returned to Australia, settling at Mulberry Hill near Frankston. During the Great Depression, they rented out their home and moved elsewhere. It was during this time that Lindsay turned her attention from painting to writing. She wrote two plays—one was performed in England, though neither was published.

Her first novel, Through Darkest Pondelayo (1936), was a satirical parody of travel writing. In 1962, she published Time Without Clocks, an autobiographical novel about her early married life. Her most famous book, Picnic at Hanging Rock, was published in 1967 when she was 71.

Joan Lindsay - Trove Extended Resource List

A black and white photo of an old balding man in a black bowtie, leaning on his cane and a woman in a black dress, smiling, about to enter a large white portal doorway, with a large black ship's bell hanging next to it.

Cathy Peake & Joan Lindsay, Papers of Cathy Peake relating to Joan and Daryl Lindsay, 1889-1988, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn828193

A black and white portrait photo of an elderly woman with a freckled face and red/dark coloured hair.

Cathy Peake & Joan Lindsay, Papers of Cathy Peake relating to Joan and Daryl Lindsay, 1889-1988, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn828193

Learning activities

Activity 1: Location identification

As a class, study the maps above and locate these key areas referred to in the novel:

Woodend
Macedon
Castlemaine
Hanging Rock (Mount Diogenes)
Melbourne

Discuss:

How far are these places from each other?
How far are they from Melbourne?
What would this mean in terms of travel time in 1900?

A photo of a map of Victoria with pastel colour shaded areas of green, pink, purple, orange and yellow

George Philip & Son, Victoria, 1885, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-232528783

A photo of an old geological colour shaded survey map with a colour key along the bottom.

Geological Survey of Victoria & Norman Taylor & J. Wilkinson, draughtsman & J. L. Ross & Alfred R. C. Selwyn & R. Shepherd, Geological Survey of Victoria. No. 6, 1860, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-235069211

Activity 2: Hanging Rock

Hanging Rock has long been a popular recreation area. Study the pictures above and discuss the following:

What’s happening in the images?
How are people dressed?
Does their clothing look appropriate for summer in Australia?
Why would they be dressed this way?
What other activities might people from the early 1900s be doing at Hanging Rock?

An old black and sepia toned photo of part of a race course, several tents and hundreds of people dressed in clothes from 1910, and a rocky topped mountain.

Sydney Johnson, Hanging Rock Races, New Year's Day, Woodend, Victoria, 1910, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-153094653

A black and sepia toned wood engraving of a large fmaily having a picnic surrounded by bush and low palm trees, taller trees and a small house in the background.

Nicholas Chevalier & Robert Bruce, Picnic party at Mount Macedon, 1868, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136140491

Activity 3: The significance of Hanging Rock

Hanging Rock is a sacred site for the Wurundjeri people, part of the Kulin Nation. Using the following questions, have students research the traditional custodians of the Macedon Ranges and surrounding areas:

Where are the traditional custodians now?
Why was Hanging Rock an important place to them?
What did they do at Hanging Rock?
What else can you find out about the traditional custodians?

A sepia toned photo of a closeup of Hanging Rock, with words typed underneath saying ' View of the "Hanging Rock" near Mount Macedon'

Nicholas Caire & Anglo-Australasian Photographic Company, View of the Hanging Rock near Mount Macaedon [Victoria], nla.gov.au/nla.obj-146727970

A black and sepia toned wood engraving of an Indigenous man holding a spear resting on the ground while talking animatedly to another Indigenous man and woman sitting on the ground amongst tall boulders, grasses, shrubs and trees.

Samuel Calvert, Scenery at Mount Macedon, 1863, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-140429536

Fact or fiction?

Lindsay has peppered her novel with hints to indicate both that the story could be real and that it could be fake.

The novel opens with a note from the author:

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.

Joan Lindsay

A yellowed typewritten page saying 'Foreword' and some hand written words saying 'or both?' next to fact or fiction.

Joan Lindsay & Andrew Fabinyi, Typescripts, [ca. 1967], nla.gov.au/nla.obj-573778720

Many people have taken this to mean that the events of Picnic at Hanging Rock were true or at least based on real events.

Discuss:

Does it matter to you whether the story is true?
Why do you think Lindsay chose not to clarify?
How does your perception of the story change if it’s true or not?
What clues in the novel support or challenge the idea that the story is based on real events?

A black and white print of a drawing of men with long poles and bags at either end carrying them along a road past a house with a couple watching next to 2 feeding horses and a cart of hay.

Samuel Thomas Gill, & James J. Blundell & Co., Mount Macedon from the Black Forest, 1855, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135634579

A watercolour landscape painting showing grass, rocks, scattered sheep and tress in the foreground, with plains and a large gently sloping mountain range in the background.

John Skinner Prout, [Mount Macedon, Victoria], 1847, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-134411173

A pen and ink drawing of a man in a hat on horse back in the foreground with several large gum trees, and plains then a large gently sloping mountain range in the background.

H.J. Graham, Mt. Macedon, 1880, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-135531041

For the cynics

For cynics, the purpose of life was to live simply and to reject wealth, fame and power. The first philosopher to outline these themes was Antisthenes, who had been a pupil of Socrates in the late fifth century BC. He was followed by Diogenes of Sinope - a Greek philosopher and one of the main proponents of Cynic philosophy - who lived in a tub on the streets of Athens. Diogenes took Cynicism to its logical extremes and came to be seen as the archetypal Cynic philosopher. He was followed by Crates of Thebes who gave away a large fortune so he could live a life of Cynic poverty in Athens. Cynicism spread with the rise of Imperial Rome in the first century, and Cynics could be found begging and preaching throughout the cities of the empire.

By the nineteenth century, emphasis on the negative aspects of Cynic philosophy led to the modern understanding of cynicism to mean a disposition of disbelief in the sincerity or goodness of human motives and actions.

Activity 4: Explore the name 'Mount Diogenes'

Explain to students that Hanging Rock is officially known as Mount Diogenes and who Diogenes was. Ask students whether Joan Lindsay might have set her story at Mount Diogenes as a clue to whether the story is true or not?

The Australian bush

The Australian bush is often portrayed in art and literature as vast, mysterious and dangerous. In contrast to the lush English countryside, the bush symbolised the unknown to early European settlers.

Activity 5: Comparing the landscape

Discuss the differences between these environments:

How would a population that hails mostly from the United Kingdom feel in this new environment?

Activity 6: Other stories of people lost in the bush

Identify other stories where people go missing or the bush is portrayed as threatening, such as:

Discuss:

What was similar about those stories? What was different?
Why is this topic such a persistent theme in Australian literature and film?
Can you think of any real-life examples of people going missing in the bush? What impact did those events have on Australians?

Activity 7: Investigating real-life disappearances

Ask students to search through newspapers and investigate a real-life disappearance of children in Australia using Trove.

Discuss: What was the public's reaction to these events?

The author's perspective

Lindsay contrasts white, colonial Australia with the extremities of the Australian landscape, particularly in the Macedon Ranges.

Activity 8: Perspectives

With the students, examine the opening chapters of the book and the references to the boarding school.

From where do you think Lindsay drew inspiration for the description of the school, its location and inhabitants?
How would the story have been different if it had been written by someone who had never been to boarding school?
Our perspective on a situation can be very heavily influenced by our age and experience. How do the girls respond to the events in the novel?
How is this different from how the adult characters react?
Lindsay was in her 70s when she published Picnic at Hanging Rock. Could her age have affected the way she wrote about the girls of Appleyard College?

Concluding activities

Lindsay originally wrote an 18th chapter that explained the fate of the missing girls, but chose not to include it in the final publication. The mystery became central to the novel’s impact and success. Director Peter Weir’s 1975 film adaptation also left the mystery unresolved.

Ask students to:

Read the novel and watch the film adaptation.
Discuss recurring motifs like time, insects, birds and the bush.
Use these themes to write their own 18th chapter imagining what happened at Hanging Rock.
Alternatively, work in groups to create a short film version of their ending.

After presenting their work, tell students that Lindsay’s original 18th chapter was published posthumously in The Secret of Hanging Rock.

Discuss:

Do you want to know what happened in the missing chapter?
Was the publisher right to cut it?
Does knowing the ending change how you feel about the novel?

A man with filming equipment filming two actors at base of mountain

Cathy Peake & Joan Lindsay, Papers of Cathy Peake relating to Joan and Daryl Lindsay, 1889-1988, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn828193

Cathy Peake & Joan Lindsay, Papers of Cathy Peake relating to Joan and Daryl Lindsay, 1889-1988, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn828193

Filming equipment in bushland with group of girls in Georgian dress in background

Cathy Peake & Joan Lindsay, Papers of Cathy Peake relating to Joan and Daryl Lindsay, 1889-1988, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn828193

Three people in beach chairs watch filming group of girls in white Georgian dress

Cathy Peake & Joan Lindsay, Papers of Cathy Peake relating to Joan and Daryl Lindsay, 1889-1988, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn828193

A group of people filming at base of Hanging Rock from a distance

Cathy Peake & Joan Lindsay, Papers of Cathy Peake relating to Joan and Daryl Lindsay, 1889-1988, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn828193

Cathy Peake & Joan Lindsay, Papers of Cathy Peake relating to Joan and Daryl Lindsay, 1889-1988, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn828193

Yellowed photo of woman in white georgian style dress

Cathy Peake & Joan Lindsay, Papers of Cathy Peake relating to Joan and Daryl Lindsay, 1889-1988, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn828193

A group of young women sit around tree in Picnic at Hanging Rock costumes

Cathy Peake & Joan Lindsay, Papers of Cathy Peake relating to Joan and Daryl Lindsay, 1889-1988, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn828193

A group of actors gathered at the base of Hanging Rock

Cathy Peake & Joan Lindsay, Papers of Cathy Peake relating to Joan and Daryl Lindsay, 1889-1988, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn828193

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Literature by Joan Lindsay – 'Picnic at Hanging Rock'

About Joan Lindsay