Fitting farewell for Narooma’s daredevil of Mad Max fame

Narooma has lost its much-loved stuntman.

Gerry Gauslaa was the man behind some of the death-defying scenes in cult movies Mad Max and Alvin Purple. He broke a world record when he crashed a bike in Mad Max and flew through the air for 28 metres. His brother Kris says it was the furthest anyone had gone off the back of a motorbike airborne.

Throughout his life he loved doing crazy things with his motorbike. Supremely confident, he was the ultimate daredevil on and off the movie set.

“He never broke a bone, but he bent a few,” Kris says.

In his late 20s he decided he would get paid for doing what he loved. Gerry went to Peter Armstrong’s stunt school at Gosford. Before long his daredevilry landed him in Stone (1974) and The Man from Hong Kong (1975). Legendary stuntman and stunt coordinator Grant Page secured Gerry his role in the Mad Max movies.

“Grant told the producers to get Gerry for Mad Max as he was the only one who would do that sort of work,” Kris says.

He regularly performed in stunt shows around the state, jumping his motorbike and crashing cars.

“Gerry also mucked around with ultralights, paragliders, hang gliders and did a few parachute jumps,” Kris says.

One of his dearest friends is Adrian Bennett, an Englishman so obsessed with Mad Max 2 that he moved his wife and children to Australia in 2006 to build the Mad Max 2 Museum in Silverton, near Broken Hill. He met Gerry in 2012.

“It was a big honour for me to meet those people who were on the set of Mad Max 2. To go on to become friends with Gerry, I had to pinch myself that this guy was involved with Mad Max 2,” Mr Bennett says.

A favourite story is when Gerry flew a microlight.

“Once an aeroplane came in below him. He was flying higher than the DC-8.”

Gerry was up for anything and prepared to suffer the consequences later.

“I’m pretty sure it wasn’t official, but the local paper would get him to take any aerial shots they needed,” Mr Bennett says.

Born in Sydney in 1944, Gerry moved to Narooma with his parents as an infant. The eldest of six, he was educated at Narooma Central School. Most of his working life, when not doing stunts, was in the bush. He was known for his expertise in logging and operating his Timberjack in bushfires.

The family never worried about Gerry. After all, they knew little of his escapades.

“He did not brag,” Kris says. “We never knew half of these things until we saw them in the Mad Max Museum.”

Mr Bennett loved hearing Gerry talk about his antics.

“If you didn’t know him and he told you these stories you would not believe it. He was just a great guy who did things a lot of us wouldn’t do. He always said there was nothing else he wanted to do. He would say, ‘I have lived my life to the full.’”

Just as he lived his life his way, Gerry died his way, after battling cancer for 20 years.

“He wanted to go to his own wake. That was in November 2022,” Kris says. “Gerry wanted to see the Mad Max Museum, so Adrian said, ‘Let’s take the museum to him.’”

Mr Bennett made a video, walking and talking through the museum, for the wake. About 100 family members and close friends attended.

“That was a blast,” Kris says.

Gerry died in February 2024. He did not want a funeral. Instead, around 200 people joined his send-off on 20 April at Club Narooma. They watched home videos of his mad capers in the Timberjack, boats and cars, along with some of his many stunts and exchanged stories and jokes.

Befitting his Viking heritage and daredevil lifestyle, on the calm waters at Rotary Park Gerry’s family set alight a Viking Longboat Um with Gerry’s ashes aboard. With family and friends watching on, Gerry’s final adventure was to Valhalla.

Mr Bennett says Gerry’s memory lives on in the museum.

“I have met a lot of people from the film but there was something very special about Gerry. He was just a wonderful person.”