Farewell to our friend Scott Mellish

Recently, one of our work colleagues, Scott Mellish, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly and the Museum lost one of its real characters. Read on to find out more about this fascinating man and feel free to leave your memories and thoughts in the Comments section.

To many, the Australian Museum is a building filled with amazing collections, specimens and exhibitions. To those of us lucky enough to work here, it is also a place filled with interesting, passionate (and occasionally downright ‘odd’) colleagues. Each contributes in their own way to what makes this Museum so special. Scott was certainly one of these.

Scott worked in security for 24 years. He was also an avid cricket fan who loved the pure form of the game (I’m still not sure about this Twenty20 malarkey) and an enthusiastic amateur astronomer.

Although Scott’s love of the night sky was known to many of us, just how much respect he commanded within astronomy circles came as a surprise. Not one to blow his own trumpet, Scott was a distinguished and award-winning member of the Astronomical Society of NSW.

He was also a renowned artist whose inventive and skilful use of brushes, charcoal and black paper to capture images of deep space became known as the "Mellish Technique". See more of Scott's work on the Astronomy Sketch of the Day website and also reproduced on our website here.

Vale Scott, 23/09/1962 - 14/04/2011.