History YMMV / PicnicAtHangingRock

* FantasyKeepsake: Perhaps the piece of cloth that Michael held in his hand had been obtained somewhere out there. After all, Michael started to lose control at the rock, as if losing sanity or going into a kind of trance. Maybe evdntually he entered some warp wormhole or a hidden dimension, there he found Irma and tried to return with her but due to some weird dimensional forces they were being pulled apart, he tried to hold onto her but managed only to tear off a piece of cloth. They both returned but separated from each other, and with partial amnesia, all of this looks like some interdimensional stuff.

* HoYay: In the miniseries, ''lots'' of barely contained subtext between Mike and Albert, as well as between Mike and some unnamed schoolmates back in England (implied to be the reason he's been sent to Australia until the gossip dies down).

* LesYay: We already know the PseudoRomanticFriendship between Miranda and Sara, but there's some subtext between Mlle de Poitiers and Miranda, Mlle de Poitiers and Irma, and between Miss [=McCraw=] and Mrs Appleyard.

* TheWoobie: Sara and her tragic character arc. She's an orphan who has HiddenDepths, but is treated like dirt by Mrs. Appleyard, and is viewed as eccentric by her classmates, except Miranda, who she has a deep bond with. Then Miranda disappears.

* LesYay: We already know the RomanticTwoGirlFriendship between Miranda and Sara, but there's some subtext between Mlle de Poitiers and Miranda, Mlle de Poitiers and Irma, and between Miss [=McCraw=] and Mrs Appleyard.

* FanDislikedExplanation: Probably ''the'' FanDislikedExplanation. The novel made its readers produce thousands of guesses about what is behind the girls' disappearances - from [[spoiler: the whole thing being the work of a rapist/kidnapper]] to [[spoiler: the headmistress molesting girls and driving them to suicide]] to [[spoiler: the rock itself trapping them inside]]. After the author's death, the eighteenth chapter with the explanation was finally released. As it turned out, [[spoiler: [[MakesAsMuchSenseInContext the girls and teacher turned into lizards]] [[GainaxEnding and got sucked into a time warp]]]]. The fans felt that it was anticlimactic and nonsensical, some even claimed it was fake, written by the publishers to sell more and that the words sounded only slightly like Lindsay's words. Even Peter Weir, who admitted that he knew of it but Lindsay's refusal to show it to him was a blessing.

* FanDislikedExplanation: Probably ''the'' FanDislikedExplanation. The novel made its readers produce thousands of guesses about what is behind the girls' disappearances - from [[spoiler: the whole thing being the work of a rapist/kidnapper]] to [[spoiler: the headmistress molesting girls and driving them to suicide]] to [[spoiler: the rock itself trapping them inside]]. After the author's death, the eighteenth chapter with the explanation was finally released. As it turned out, [[spoiler: [[MakesAsMuchSenseInContext the girls turned into lizards]] [[GainaxEnding and got sucked into a time warp]]]]. The fans felt that it was anticlimactic and nonsensical, some even claimed it was fake, written by the publishers to sell more and that the words sounded only slightly like Lindsay's words. Even Peter Weir, who admitted that he knew of it but Lindsay's refusal to show it to him was a blessing.

* FanDislikedExplanation: Probably ''the'' FanDislikedExplanation. The novel made its readers produce thousands of guesses about what is behind the girls' disappearances - from [[spoiler: the whole thing being the work of a rapist/kidnapper]] to [[spoiler: the headmistress molesting girls and driving them to suicide]] to [[spoiler: the rock itself trapping them inside]]. After the author's death, the eighteenth chapter with the explanation was finally released. As it turned out, [[spoiler: [[MakesAsMuchSenseInContext the girls turned into lizards]] [[GainaxEnding and got sucked into a time warp]]]]. The fans felt that it was anticlimactic and nonsensical. Even Peter Weir, to whom the author showed the ending chapter, advised her not to publish it and didn't include it into a movie.

** In the classroom scene with Sara, Mrs. Appleyard confuses Felicia Hemans' "Casabianca" with Longfellow's "Literature/TheWreckOfTheHesperus"--one of the signs that she may be a ConArtist.

** In the classroom scene with Sara, Mrs. Appleyard confuses Felicia Hemans' "Casabianca" with Longfellow's "The Wreck of the Hesperus"--one of the signs that she may be a ConArtist.

* EpilepticTrees: Hoo boy. At least one actual book of theories about what happened has been published: Yvonne Rousseau's ''The Murders at Hanging Rock''. Rousseau discusses these possibilities: the girls went to AnotherDimension, there was some sort of [[SupernaturalFiction supernatural occurrence]], the story takes place in an AlternateUniverse, they were murdered [[spoiler:by Michael and Albert]], or they became victims of an AlienAbduction. Popular ingredients for other theories include the rock as a GeniusLoci, and the Aboriginal concept of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamtime The Dreamtime]].

* DiscreditedMeme: Everyone knows how corny it is to shout "Miranda! Miranda!" while you climb Hanging Rock, but practically everyone who visits the site still does it.

** The miniseries includes barely subtextual romances between Miranda/Irma, Marion/Great [=McCraw=], (probably one-sided) Sara/Miranda, and [[OneTrueThreesome Miranda/Irma/Marion]].