Silverton

Frightfully good ghost stories only on the Nightline.

Yes, it is time for Frightfully Good ghost stories with Anne and Renata, and tonight we're heading into far, far western New South Wales, to Broken Hill and nearby Silverton, and our journey takes us from a former nursing home to a jail with a rather confronting medical exhibit and a railway station that preserves far more than the history of trains.

Renata, before Anne takes us on the spooky side of things, who might, [laughs] tell us who might be wandering around, how did the Silver City get started?

Okay, we are on Wilaya Kali country, sorry, Wil-Wilaya Ka-Kali country, and the mining towns we are talking about are only one part of the history of this area.

Silverton was already developing when the discovery that would make Broken Hill fortune came along.

In September 1883, Charles Rasp, a boundary rider on Mount Gibbs Station, examined an outcrop he thought might contain tin.

He registered a mineral claim with David James and James Poole, and the venture expanded into the Syndicate of Seven.

Yeah.

And tonight, a 42-year Mad Max obsession in the middle of the Australian outback.

Our feature museum is the Mad Max 2 Museum in Silverton, New South Wales.

Mad Max superfan Adrian Bennett is the man behind the museum.

And Adrian joins me on the line now from Silverton.

Adrian, kia ora to you.

Really lovely to have you on the program.

It far exceeded any expectations, you know, to be here where the film was shot.

And so two years later, yeah, we moved in 2006, lived just outside of Adelaide for three years.

Now, this was... done in, well, Broken Hill, which is...

Broken Hill's kind of blown up a little bit now since, but also in Silverton, which is where the Mad Max Museum is located.

And the population to this day, as far as we know, of Australia, in Silverton, Australia, is a population of 36.

Fucking heaven.

You heard that right, folks.

And it is not an easy one.

The flight alone is long.

And then to the closest airport you can get to, you have to rent a car and then drive hours on end to get to Silverton to get to Broken Hill.

So I think that's an incredibly exciting opportunity for us.

One of those places in Australia that has produced many cinematic classics is, of course, Broken Hill and Silverton in far west of New South Wales.

The iconic stark, flat, red earth was the perfect backdrop for films like Mad Max 2, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and even Mission Impossible.

Our reporter, Em Jensen, meets the locals who are trying to keep their region on screen.

We're unplugging our curling wands and going bush, Felicia.

Why would you possibly want to leave all this glamour for a hike into the middle of nowhere?

A 20-minute drive down the road, the tiny town of Silverton has served as a backdrop for films like Wake In Fright and Mad Max 2.

The town of about 30 residents has one pub, four donkeys, and a Mad Max 2 museum.