Return to Hanging Rock

The playlist includes each question as an individual clip as well as a 20-minute clip of the entire Q&A. She answers questions about returning to Hanging Rock in recent years; how the film changed her life; what it was like as a young actress working with director Peter Weir; what she would change now about her performance; and her reactions to seeing the film again after many years.

Mrs Appleyard at Hanging Rock

We’ve also added more outtakes to the online exhibition: scenes of Mrs Appleyard (played by Rachel Roberts) climbing Hanging Rock, retracing the steps of the missing schoolgirls and encountering a vision of orphan Sara Waybourne (Margaret Nelson).

Director Peter Weir shot the scenes for the original ending of the film but ultimately decided not to use them, leaving Mrs Appleyard’s ultimate fate to the imagination of the viewer. These are excerpts from reels of 35mm silent colour outtakes, trims of scenes and additional unused material that the NFSA acquired from Martin Sharp, who was credited on the film as ‘Artistic Advisor to the Director’.

You can see more outtakes from the film in the Picnic at Hanging Rock curated collection, along with costumes, props, oral history interviews, music, posters, lobby cards, photographs, scripts and behind-the-scenes production documents.