Fake News
Mad Max:
- December 6th, 1984 written on the Highway 9 Sector 26 sign
- "est. 1983" seen on the MFP plate at the gates of Halls Of Justice (not visible in the movie, info retrieved from a movie prop)
- Set 'A few years from now (from 1979)' Few = 2-5 years.
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior:
- Set three years after Mad Max.
Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome:
- September 10th 199?: the day Captain Walker left The Crack In The Earth along with other adults from the crashed Boeing 747 in search of civilization. In the script, this date was originally November 8th, 2005.
- Set 15 years after Mad Max 2
- 2004
The first movie was set some odd 10 years after the 1973 oil crisis, without any backstory written by the creators.
It is visible in hidden dates in the movie (December 6th, 1984, est. 1983).
After the release of Mad Max, Terry Hayes was hired to flesh out a complete backstory for the first and the second Mad Max movie he was working on. He based it on the 1979 oil crisis in Australia.
According to the dates provided by production documents and movies themselves, the original trilogy starts in mid 1980's and ends in 2005.