The MFP’s strangely vaulted underground garage, in which Max is seduced by the souped up Interceptor, is South Lawn Car Park on the campus of Melbourne University.įraser Street, the main street in Clunes, on C287 north of Ballarat, became the town of ‘Wee Jerusalem’, which the oddly theatrical band of nomad bikers led by Toecutter ( Hugh Keays-Byrne) invade to collect the body of Nightrider from the rail station. #Mad max films seriesThe building complex (which also featured as ‘Blackmoor Prison’ in cult TV series Prisoner: Cell Block H) is now Scienceworks, part of Museum Victoria, entrance at 2 Booker Street. In the background of some shots you can clearly see the curve of the raised West Gate Freeway, M1, which runs into the heart of the city. The interiors of the MFP were also filmed here, but the rest of the buildings and the courtyard are the old Spotswood Pumping Station, on Douglas Parade, Spotswood, about five miles south-west of Melbourne's central business district. The official address is 21 Graham Street, Albert Park, though the remains of the old gasworks buildings stand on Beach Street at Esplanade West. Since then, the complex has been redeveloped as Gasworks Arts Park, occupying eight acres of parkland – the heritage industrial buildings now housing theatres, art galleries, studios and workshop spaces. The famous shot of the ‘Halls of Justice’, dilapidated headquarters of the ‘Bronze’, the Main Force Patrol (MFP), is the South Melbourne Gasworks in Port Melbourne.Īfter natural gas reserves were discovered around Australia in 1960, the site closed down and, at the time of filming, was abandoned. It’s a private home, so all the usual reminders about not disturbing residents obviously apply. The story goes that Sally Smith, known locally as Pretty Sally, operated an unlicensed hotel on the site in the 1840s, before dying in an accident when her cart hit a stump and she fell under its wheels.Īway from the rampant anarchy of the dusty highways, Max lives peacefully with his wife Jessie ( Joanne Samuel) and young son, in a beachfront house at 310 Great Ocean Road in Fairhaven, on the B100 coast road 60 miles southwest of Melbourne. The place already seems to have a history of vehicular disasters. One that’s gone is ‘Fat Nancy’s’, the roadside diner from which Goose ( Steve Bisley) takes off to join the pursuit, which was the Pretty Sally Roadhouse at Pretty Sally Hill, a dormant volcanic cone between Wallan and Kilmore. In over 30 years since the film was made, many locations have changed dramatically or disappeared completely. It begins as furiously as it means to go on, with cops chasing the wacked-out Nightrider on roads about 20 miles west of the city. The unknown Mel Gibson shot to fame as futuristic, leather-clad cop Max Rockatansky, unhinged by a vicious attack on his wife and child, in George Miller’s low budget, high octane actioner, which leaps dizzyingly from location to location around Melbourne, Victoria. In 2015, George Miller would return to this world with a fourth feature film: Mad Max: Fury Road, which starred Tom Hardy as Max and a returning Hugh Keays-Byrne as warlord Immortan Joe.Now we’re familiar with the two sequels, the original Mad Max starts to look like what we’d now call an origins story. The success of these films would spawn many low budget film knockoffs throughout the next two decades. Directed by George Miller, the film would be followed to even greater success with 1982's The Road Warrior and then 1985's Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. After a tragic incident, Max decides to take the law into his own hands to seek revenge. Mel Gibson stars in the film as Max Rockatansky, a law enforcement officer patrolling the vast roads of Australia with the Main Force Patrol. Mad Max is the 1979 post apocalyptic action film that launched the Mad Max film franchise.
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