Tiny Silverton museum boasts Mad Max trucks and more

There are few Mad Max fans as devoted as Adrian Bennett — so much so that he uprooted his life in the United Kingdom to move to Silverton in NSW, the tiny Outback town where the second movie was filmed. 

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In Silverton, which is about 25km from Broken Hill, Adrian and his wife Linda have set up a Mad Max 2 museum.

It boasts a wide range of relics from the film — including the original F100 “Snake Truck” and a replica of the Mack that the villain of the movie, Wez, is sitting on the front of when he is killed.

“I first saw Mad Max 2 way back in 1982, when I was 18 years old,” Adrian remembers.

“My wife and I first came on holiday to Australia in 2004 to do the sites of both the films in Victoria, then Broken Hill.

“We just fell in love with Broken Hill.”

The idea for the museum stemmed from Adrian’s passion for the movies, but also because it seemed like the area was missing a trick. 

“It didn’t really make sense to me that you had a place known as the Hollywood of the Outback, where you’ve got all these big films that have been made over the years, but there was nothing really for tourists or visitors to see,” he says.

Adrian and Linda moved from Yorkshire to Adelaide in 2006, and then to Silverton three years later.

Adrian left behind his life in Yorkshire to set up this amazing passion project

Getting the show on the road

Once they found a suitable property for their new museum, it was time to start sourcing vehicles, props, costumes and other items from Mad Max 2.

The attraction opened in 2010, but Adrian says it’s been a long journey to build the collection up to where it is today — and it’s still growing.

“You can’t start at the top with something like this,” Adrian says. “It has taken 14 years to get where we are now, and I’m still adding to the collection.

“These pieces are rare and you can’t find them on Ebay or places like that.”

“You are really relying on people who worked on the film, or people who know people who worked on the film, to get in touch with you.

A year or two after the museum opened, Adrian was contacted by Bruce Lamshed, the supervising sound mixer from Mad Max 2.

Bruce had the original boomerang used by ‘The Feral Kid’ in the movie, as well as the music box he had.

“Bruce had been given the boomerang and the music box to record the sound from them in a studio, because they are too quiet otherwise,” Adrian explains. 

The collection has grown a lot over the years

“He had them for 30 years before he called us, and I asked him how much he wanted for them.

“After I picked myself up off the floor when he told me how much, we managed to strike a deal and I went and got the items.”

Then about nine years ago, Adrian got permission to excavate two sites where the crew of Mad Max 2 had buried items from the movie.

“Instead of the crew bringing things back to Broken Hill to dump them, they buried them — out of laziness, really.

“We found some great stuff out there, from mannequins to the shield from the flame thrower and the black armband worn by Wez.

“We even found a codpiece that was worn by one of the bad guys, that exploded in a deleted scene!”

The Mack

One of the highlights of the museum is a black R600 Mack with orange stripes — a replica of the rig used in the pivotal scene in which baddie Wez finally meets his demise.

The Mack found its way into Adrian’s hands through the owner of a company in Broken Hill. 

The museum is running out of space, but Adrian managed to squeeze in the R600, which was painted up to look exactly like the one in the movie

“We’d got to know this guy and he rang me up one day and asked if I would be interested in an R600 Mack like they used in the film, which he had been using as a yard truck.

“I said I would love to take it but money was a little tight, but he didn’t want anything for it.

“He actually said ‘If you don’t want it, I’m going to dig a hole in the yard and bury it!’”

The truck was still registered and running perfectly, so the owner drove it to Silverton and dropped it off at the museum.

It was great timing, because just a few days later, Adrian received a visit from none other than Vernon Wells, the actor who played Wez in the movie.

“There’s a famous scene from the end of the movie, where everyone thinks Wez has been killed because he’s fallen off the front of the truck,” he says. 

It’s not looking good for Wez…

“Then he climbs up over the front of the truck again and tries to grab the Feral Kid on the bonnet.

“His friends who were visiting the museum with him asked him to recreate the scene, and he did, which was fantastic.”

The truck was white when it arrived, but Adrian had it painted up to match the look of its silver screen counterpart.

Not long after that, a kind visitor to the museum offered to make a custom cow catcher for the truck.

“He said he wanted to contribute to the museum, and he made this incredible cow catcher for the truck, that bolts on to the bull bar.

“It’s just like the one you see in the movie.” 

Then it was time for the final touches – mannequins representing Max, The Feral Kid and Wez — and it was ready for display.

“I never thought in a million years we’d get a R600 Mack,” says Adrian. “I am delighted to have it in the collection.” 

The scene featuring the R600 Mack.
Image: YouTube

The Snake Truck

Adrian was also lucky enough to get hold of the original Ford F100 “Snake Truck” that was used throughout the film.

It had been saved by the same person who kept the famous Ford Falcon XB GT Pursuit Special V8 Interceptor from the movie — Derek Wyness.

Wyness was part of the production team for Mad Max 2, as well as playing a role on screen — a character also called Derek.

Many years ago, he came to visit the museum with his daughter, and Adrian forced himself to ask him about displaying the vehicles.

“He was a lovely fella, but he was also a big bloke who looked like Grizzly Adams, and I was really nervous to approach him,” Adrian says.

“Eventually I plucked up the courage to say, ‘You know, you’re quite welcome to display the vehicles you have here in the museum — any time you want.’

“He just said, ‘Thanks very much, Adrian,’ and that was it, he kind of ended the conversation.”

Adrian never heard anything from him about the subject again, and Wyness sadly passed away in 2020.

“After he died, his ex-wife came to see us and asked if we would like the vehicles,” he says.

“It was one of those things — normally when someone gifts or donates something from the film, I’m doing cartwheels with excitement.

“But because Derek had passed away, it was a very bittersweet moment.”

The engine of the F100, which Adrian doesn’t believe is the original engine used in the movie, hadn’t been started in 20 years.

Thankfully she was very easy to get going, after the addition of a new battery and a few checks. 

“It got a few knocks in the movie, because some of the stunts involved it bashing into the truck,” he says. “But it still fired up.” 

Wez’s terrifying final moments. Image: YouTube

Adrian says the truck faded quite a lot in the years Wyness owned it, as it had been out on display on his property in Broken Hill.

“Derek had the F100 and the Interceptor out in the open, with a fence around them, so people could come and look at them,” he says.

“That was until one of the extra fuel tanks was stolen from the back of the Interceptor and Derek decided to move the vehicles, tucking them away on his property where no-one could see them unless they asked him.

“Thankfully we’ve got them under cover now, out of the sun, but where people get to see them every day.”

Adrian has no regrets over moving from Yorkshire to a dusty town in the middle of the Outback, on the other side of the world.

“Some people say to us, ‘How can you live here?’

“But we love it. We get to meet lots of tourists during the day, and then come 4.30pm, you can hear a pin drop.

Mad Max is such a big part of Australian culture now, and I love that I get to share my passion with everyone who stops by.” 

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