Hanging Rock

Hanging Rock is a mamelon, formed when unusually stiff lava was pushed up around six million years ago and solidified into a mass that erosion has since broken into pinnacles, balancing boulders and narrow passages. A track climbs about a hundred metres through them to the summit, past features named the Colonnade, the Hanging Rock itself and the Black Hole of Calcutta. The site is significant to the Wurundjeri and Dja Dja Wurrung peoples. Its wider fame comes from Joan Lindsay's 1967 novel about schoolgirls disappearing here on Valentine's Day 1900 and the film made of it, a fiction that many visitors still half-believe. Concerts and horse races are held on the flat below.

What you actually see

• The rock passages - narrow gaps and balancing boulders on the climb.
• The summit view - the Macedon Ranges and plains from the top.
• The named features - the Colonnade, Hanging Rock and other formations.
• The reserve below - picnic grounds, racecourse and concert lawn.

When to go

September to May; spring gives the greenest surroundings and summer can be hot on the exposed rock. The climb takes around thirty to forty minutes. Concerts and race days restrict access and fill the car parks.

Honest expectations

The disappearance in the novel is fiction, not history, and there is no mystery to investigate. Vehicle entry is charged. The path is steep with uneven rock steps, and the summit area is small and crowded at peak times.

Nearby

Woodend and Mount Macedon are close; Daylesford lies west.