95 year eight students of Strathcona Baptist Girls Grammar School dressed up in Victorian costumes of flowing dresses and parasols to recreate the Australian classic novel Picnic at Hanging Rock last week.
Year eight coordinator Miranda Gazis, says the decision to take the students out of the classroom and have them live the times and era of the novel is a bid made by the school to renew emphasis on Australian literature and themes.
“It’s a chance for them to see the story come to life and try and feel and understand what life was like in the 1900’s for females”.
The classic novel, first published in 1967, centres around an ill-fated excursion for students and teachers of Appleyard College on St Valentine’s Day in 1900, which resulted in the disappearance of several students and teachers at Hanging Rock. Gazis agrees that the mystery of the novel was felt on the day, even the story is pure fiction.
“It was quite funny as one of the characters in the book that goes missing was named Miranda so we had a running joke with the students to keep a close eye on me not to go missing,” says Gazis.
