Picnic at Hanging Rock: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

The day after the picnic, Sunday, is a “nightmare” for the students and staff at Appleyard College. Mrs. Appleyard is, after a sleepless night, determined not to let a word of what has happened get out. Trips into town to attend church are cancelled, and the girls are instructed to keep their mouths shut—only Mr. Hussey’s confidential report to the police is permitted. While Mrs. Appleyard is able to control the traumatized girls, however, the staff—including Tom, Minnie, and Miss Lumley—whisper about the incident to one another throughout the day.

The town doctor, Doctor McKenzie, comes to check up on the girls and Mademoiselle. He pronounces Mademoiselle and the students to be in good health. The only thing that disturbs McKenzie is the fact that Edith Horton claims to have no memory of anything that happened up on the rock.

Constable Bumpher and a young officer come to visit and talk with Mrs. Appleyard. They assure her that “city people” are always getting lost in the woods and the bush, and that the girls and Miss McCraw will soon be found. Mrs. Appleyard says that Miranda—the school’s head girl—was “born and bred in the bush” and should know better than to get lost, but the police again promise her that the matter will be cleared up within hours.

The police begin a search of the rock but are unable to locate any tracks or footprints. They decide to bring in an Aboriginal Australian tracker and several bloodhounds, and also enlist the help of Michael Fitzhubert and Albert Crundall. By Sunday evening, in spite of Mrs. Appleyard’s best efforts, the surrounding towns are swarming with gossip about the missing girls.

At the crack of dawn on Monday, a young reporter shows up at the front door of the college—though he’s turned away, others appear throughout the day. Mrs. Appleyard lets no reporters, visitors, or concerned neighbors inside. Classes are suspended for the day, and though meals are served at their regular times, most of the girls are too distressed to eat. Sara, who idolized Miranda, is particularly upset.

On Tuesday, Michael Fitzhubert and Albert Crundall give their statements to the authorities. Michael gives his testimony, recalling how he watched the girls leap over the creek one by one and head up onto the rock. He says that though he himself went for a stroll at its base several minutes later, the group was already out of sight. He thought nothing more of the girls and went home with his aunt, uncle, and Albert shortly thereafter. After securing Michael’s statement, Bumpher points out that Michael recalled seeing only three girls hop over the creek. Michael amends his statement and says there was indeed a fourth girl—but the last girl was a “little fat one.” The policemen asks if Michael was interested in the senior girls, but he denies looking at them closely.

While Michael gives his statement to Bumpher in the comfort of his aunt and uncle’s home at Lake View, Albert gives his to the younger policeman, Jim Grant, at the Woodend station. Albert deliberately jerks the young cop around during the interview, cursing and joking with him. The policeman is unprofessional, too, asking for Albert to sneak him a ride on Michael’s prize Arab pony. The policeman asks if Michael, riding his own mount, was with the carriage the entire way back to Lake View. Albert assures the policeman that he was.

The press gets hold of the story and dubs it the College Mystery—the lurid tale is sensationalized in the papers over the course of the week. There are still no new clues or leads—but “the public must be fed.” The articles exaggerate Michael’s wealth, Irma’s beauty, and the strangeness of the whole affair.

An investigator from the city arrives at the college early Wednesday morning to take Edith back to the picnic grounds to perhaps jog her memory. Bumpher accompanies them, promising Mrs. Appleyard they’ll be easy on the already “bamboozled” Edith. Back at the picnic grounds, the police officers ask Edith to walk them through the afternoon again, describing how the girls set off in the first place. Edith details how Marion teased her all the way along the creek and up to the rock, and remembers wanting to sit down along the trail. Bumpher asks if there was a special rock or log she remembers seeing, but Edith says there wasn’t.

Edith tells the policemen she does remember seeing something strange—a “nasty red” cloud which appeared to her shortly after she passed Miss McCraw on her way down the mountain. The investigators are shocked by this information—Edith hasn’t mentioned encountering Miss McCraw in any of her other statements. Edith says she saw the woman at a distance on her way back down. Though she was far away from the teacher, she could see that Miss McCraw looked “funny.” The investigators press her for details, and Edith reveals that Miss McCraw had stripped down to her drawers.

The police return Edith to the college, where Mrs. Appleyard is overwhelmed with the number of letters pouring in from the press, from neighbors, and from concerned parents of the girls still remaining at the school. Mrs. Appleyard knows she has to write to the parents of Miranda and Irma and the legal guardian of Marion informing them that the girls are missing. She is dreading writing the letters, and wishes the girls had all come back from the picnic that fateful Saturday just as crisp, clean, and orderly as she sent them off. Mrs. Appleyard knows that losing three senior girls will damage the “prestige and social standing” of the college, and wishes that Edith or Sara had disappeared instead.

Mrs. Appleyard buckles down and begins a letter to the “fabulously rich” Leopolds who live in India but who, according to Irma’s last letters to them, are on holiday in the Himalayas. Mrs. Appleyard then writes to Miranda’s parents—well-to-do owners of cattle ranches who are “not quite in the millionaire class.” She then writes a third and final letter to Marion’s legal guardian—a family solicitor who is away in New Zealand. Mrs. Appleyard writes a perfunctory letter to the elderly father of Miss McCraw, then stamps them and brings them downstairs to the hall table for Tom to post.