Picnic at Hanging Rock

We started talking about the book - some adamantly disliked it, someone didn't even bother to read it while others loved it so I guess that's what a bookclub is all about.



The story reminds one of the mysteries of the Australian outback, the haunting sounds of the wind in the gum trees, the insects in the heat and the calls of the galahs while at the same time the British colonialists try desperately to hang on to their symbols of upper class status - porcelain teacups, cut glass for drinking out in the bush - three-piece suits in the dry hot summer - bonkers we now think.



The story can be read as a strange tale of young girls and their teacher disappearing on Hanging Rock - the hysterics of the two survivors - and the unexplained death of another girl back at the College. It is written in such a way that the reader never really knows if the story is based on any kind of truth - is it? will we ever know? Or it can be read as the old and the new coming together yet remaining apart. Where Nature overcomes Man who is totally unequipped to cope. Even Albert the Australian pitted against the Rock does not find the girls and the local police appear rather timid and wary of exploring too deeply amongst the crevises. In fact it is the more weedy and more inexperienced Michael who finds the crucial piece of evidence. Is this to show that his breeding and upper class fortitude and 'character' are evidence that he is in fact superior to Albert in more ways than just money and class.



We then watched the Peter Weir film - made in the 1970s but set in 1900. It was very beautifully shot with many Pre-Raffaelite allusions. Some of us found it too fluffy, fey, effete, soft focus - not gritty enough as we have sometimes come to expect of Australian movies?



There were certainly some oddities - the marvellous panpipe music was lovely to listen to - but a continent away from its home - a touch of didgerdoo would have added to the tension and the atmosphere. I was reminded of A Passage to India and the cave scenes - indeed the lack of scenes for we don't know there either what actually happened.



But Australia is a mixture of two (and now of many) completely different cultures and the movie industry has sometimes found it difficult to show this. This film is worth seeing for its prettiness rather than for its acting which is rather minimal, for yet another strange story from the bush (the Dingo baby story has just risen its head again as I write this), rather than for any psychological analysis of young women and for a view into what life really was like for a few young women at the turn of a century when Queen Victoria was still on the throne.



British colonialists became a smaller and smaller group yet they still wielded enormous power and influence. Many didn't know how to leave Britain behind and their clinging to the 'old ways' seems to emphasise their insecurity. Many of course did become native, while many others returned to the 'old country' when they retired finding a different place from that which they had left.



Three of our bookclub are children of the colonies. I have been to Hanging Rock and my children have climbed it. It is indeed a weird place with the eerie sounds of wind and the vastness of the empty bush all around.



As an aside on New Year's Day horse races take place at Hanging Rock which are worth going to should you ever get the chance.