Picnic at Hanging Rock

Lost time is a motif that illustrates the unreality of Hanging Rock. As soon as the picnickers approach the site, Mr. Hussey and Miss McCraw’s watches unaccountably stop working; already, the group is at the mercy of the strange magic of Hanging Rock, a place unaffected by temporal or practical laws, which seems to alter the perceptions of those who are brought into its orbit. As Miranda, Marion, and Irma walk up the hanging rock, pursued by Edith, Miranda warns her friends that they “can’t go much further” (30), but then continues up the slope; the girls are uncharacteristically unaware of or indifferent to the passing of time. After falling into a deep sleep, the girls awake in the twilight and hear “the beating of far-off drums” (31)—later revealed to be Mr. Hussey beating on a billy (kettle) to call them back—but do not react to it or make any movement to leave, in thrall to the rock’s mysterious power.

Similarly, when Mike searches for the girls, he returns to Albert hours later than the agreed-upon time, as he had “had lost all count of time” (75). The next day, Mike continues his search, but it is in an odd, dream-like, timeless state; later, neither Mike nor Irma can remember their time at Hanging Rock. The doctor uses the time to describe Irma’s memory, which will never recover the events of her week on Hanging Rock: “like a clock that stops under a certain set of conditions and refuses ever to go again beyond a particular point” (112). Hanging Rock is a space that exists off the clock face, and what happens there happens in a separate realm from the events of regular life.