Picnic at Hanging Rock

Author: Heather burke

Set on St Valentine’s Day, 1900, Peter Weir’s film of author Joan Lindsay’s novel Picnic at Hanging Rock is a complex tale of the unresolved disappearance of three schoolgirls and one of their teachers from a picnic at the eponymous Hanging Rock.

The tantalising, often eerie, film received widespread critical acclaim when it premiered in 1975, launching Peter Weir’s directorial career and becoming the third-highest-grossing film in Australia upon its release.

Large parts of it were also filmed at Martindale Hall. After completing the outdoor scenes at Hanging Rock in Victoria, the crew relocated to South Australia, commencing filming—fittingly—on St Valentine’s Day (14 February) 1975.

Printed colour poster — The 1975 film poster advertising Picnic at Hanging Rock. Reproduced courtesy of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, Melbourne, with permission from Picnic Productions.

The interior of the coach house and stables served as the Appleyard College gymnasium. Reproduced courtesy of University of Adelaide.

Doubling as the private girls’ school Appleyard College, Martindale Hall’s lush interiors are central to the unfolding of the plot.

Doubling as the private girls’ school Appleyard College, Martindale Hall’s lush interiors are central to the unfolding of the plot. The ornate rooms of the Hall embody the gentrified standards expected of the elite young ladies of Appleyard, typified by the prim and controlled self-discipline of the principal, Mrs Appleyard, played by actress Rachel Roberts. The pictures, ornaments, furniture and fittings of Martindale, which Rachel Roberts felt were ‘slightly oppressive’ and ‘rather creepy’, contrast sharply with the otherworldly, natural wildness that is Hanging Rock.

Helen Morse as Mademoiselle Dianne de Poitiers, the French and Dancing mistress at Appleyard College in the Martindale Drawing Room. Reproduced courtesy of University of Adelaide.

Many of Martindale’s rooms appear in various guises in the film, including the central hall and staircase, upstairs bathrooms and bedrooms, dining room and smoking room. Windows, doors, wallpapers, furniture and richly textured curtains all feature repeatedly in the many interior scenes. The coach house became the Appleyard College gymnasium. A complete replica of Mrs Appleyard’s office (the drawing room at Martindale) was constructed in the South Australian Film Corporation’s studio in Norwood, with details reproduced down to the carved mouldings around the windows.

Filmed four years before Dorothy Mortlock’s death in 1979, the interiors appear as they were before the Hall became the unencumbered property of the University of Adelaide. Although much of the wider estate, including the Hall, had been donated to the University in the 1950s and 1960s, the Hall itself only became solely University property following Dorothy’s death.

Rachel Roberts as Mrs Appleyard on the main staircase at Martindale Hall. Reproduced courtesy of University of Adelaide.

Many of Martindale’s rooms appear in various guises in the film, including the central hall and staircase, upstairs bathrooms and bedrooms, dining room and smoking room.

The ornate rooms of Martindale Hall embody the gentrified standards expected of the elite young ladies of Appleyard. Photograph by Heather Burke.

Part of the South Australian Film Corporation’s mandate when financing the film was to ensure the employment of South Australian artists and technicians, as well as the use of local facilities. In 1975, the SA Film Corporation was only in its third year of operation and Picnic at Hanging Rock was its second feature film. The world premiere was held at the then brand-new Greater Union Quad Cinema Complex in Hindley Street, Adelaide, in August 1975.

During the making of the film, the University of Adelaide placed various stipulations on the use of the Hall. Apart from doubling the suggested location fee, the university also requested that publicity around Martindale Hall as the venue be kept to a minimum, and that neither the university nor Dorothy be named in any publicity materials.

The university made several changes to the building, both inside and out, in the following decade, which means that Peter Weir’s film depicts many details that no longer exist. The walls of Mrs Appleyard’s office, for instance, show the wallpaper that has since been painted over, as well as the multitude of paintings and furnishings that once filled this room. The greenhouse that once existed at the rear of the Hall was demolished by the university in the early 1980s, and outtakes from the film feature the flock of turkeys that once roamed the estate.