Two Men Enter... One Man Leaves

Bartertown - 20 Years Ago

Scott and I are movie buffs. We once traveled to Vancouver just to see where they filmed episodes of the X-Files before they relocated filming in LA. (Yes, I know, we are geeks!) ;-) Believe it or not it is actually a wonderful way to explore a city… or a country. Once we found out Superman Returns was filmed here in Sydney, we decided to find out more about what other films and locations were recorded here in Australia. One of the most iconic master pieces is the Mad Max trilogy. We thought our inquiries would bring us to the expected locations of the Outback, which we found true. Yet, we were surprised to find out we had actually been to a Mad Max 3 location: Bartertown.

Here is what the brick pit looked like in 2001 after the Olympics.



Below is what it looks like today: The Brick Pit and The Ring Walk. The pit was closed to the public in 1993 when they discovered the Green and Golden Bell Frog living in the freshwater ponds within the Brick Pit. The Ring Walk was built sometime in the past few years to allow visitors to discover these protected frogs (we didn't see any). There is also information about the pit itself, how it supplied the bricks to build Sydney. It looks like the original area where Bartertown was filmed is underwater.



We've uncovered more Mad Max locations as well as sites from Superman Returns, Matrix, and Mission Impossible II. The latest X-Men movie, Wolverine, just finished shooting in May in a nearby suburb in Sydney. Forewarning - you'll see more blogs like these. Yes, again I know - we are geeks!