What happened at Hanging Rock and why have a picnic there?

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK is a famous novel by Joan Lindsay telling the mysterious tale of a group of schoolgirls and one teacher who, on Valentines Day 1900, disappeared up on Hanging Rock, never to be seen again.

To this day, there is still a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding surrounding the story (was it real? did it really happen etc?) This is partially due to the fact that the original conclusion to the novel (as per the authors request - she wanted to create the ultimate sense of mystery ) remained unpublished until the year 1987 (three years after she died)

It is a wonderful place for a picnic, walk, great views etc etc... and a little imagination will only add to the enjoyment!

At the base of Hanging Rock are picnic grounds and the girls in the story went there on St Valentine's Day (a Saturday I think) as a bit of an outing - which would have broken up being at boarding school 24/7 - and a few of them did some maths things too (by taking measurements).

In the book / movie, 4 girls go for a walk (which they had been told not to do) and they fall asleep. When they awake 3 girls keep climbing and 1 runs screaming down the hill. As it turns out, a teacher also goes missing. Despite days of searching, only one girl is found...

Interesting...after reading the responses, I'm guessing that you're not referring to Hanging Rock, Arkansas, USA....they hanged some yankees there who were raiding local farms and killing women and children during the American Civil War (Arkansas was a Confederate state). And it is a nice place for a picnic, lots of sycamore, willow and birch trees...lots of raccoons too, who'll beg the last piece of chicken from you if you let them...LOL

They had a picnic there because it is a nice location for a picnic.

Some girls went missing and their bodies were never found.

It grew to become into merely fiction. The e book grew to become into like Blair Witch in the experience it asked that the reader cope with it as genuine. It grew to become into thoroughly fiction. I enjoyed the action picture as a little one and vowed to marry considered one of those women once I grew up lol

There are walking tracks all over the rock, lots of secluded areas, fantastic views, it's eerie, there are koalas everywhere, very surreal, close to melbourne.

nothing

why not have a picnic there? it's a nice place