Deep in the heart of the Australian outback lives a man dubbed “the world’s biggest Mad Max fan.”
Adrian Bennett packed up his life from his hometown of Bradford in the UK, in 2006 and with the support of his wife of 30 years, Linda, took his Mad Max 2 obsession to a new level. The couple travelled to the heartland of the Mad Max films: a remote New South Wales town of Silverton, 26 km north of Broken Hill and with a population of less than 100. Here they opened a museum dedicated to the franchise.
Bennett’s fascination with the Australian films started decades earlier. In 1982, he went to a screening of Mad Max and Mad Max 2 (known as The Road Warrior in the U.S.) with his mates and it changed his life.
“I was just blown away from the opening scene of the first film to the closing credits of Mad Max 2, my jaw was on the floor,” he told Pedestrian in a video segment produced with Commonwealth Bank. “My life definitely changed once I left the cinema, all I could think about was Mad Max.”
Linda watched his obsession grow, and decided to take the journey with him. “It planted a seed and you could see that seed growing over years,” she said. “There are people that are still gobsmacked, and I am one of them, because sometimes I wake up and go ‘what the hell?’.”
Bennett agrees: “If someone would have said to me, in 30 years time you are going to be living in the outback of Australia with a museum dedicated to Mad Max 2, it would have sounded ridiculous.”
The museum, which is the main attraction in the tiny town, is full of photographs, life-size characters, vehicles and other knick knacks that Bennett has collected from the region.
“I keep saying we have gone as far as we can go, and it wont get any better than this, but every time I say this, something else happens,” he said. “Not many people would have gotten away with what I have gotten away with, so I am lucky it has all fallen into place with the help of Linda.”
The latest installment, Mad Max: Fury Road , was released in cinemas on May 15, and promotion for the new film took over the city of Sydney with a post-apocalyptic extravaganza. Bennett was in town for the occasion, and was clearly stoked. “I’ve waited 30 years for this,” he said.
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