Founder | Producer
Mel is the driving force behind each map project. She conquers technological learning curves, brings artists together, talks about the project to everyone who will listen and is the founder, project manager, researcher, funder, promoter and publisher of the maps. The original Melbourne Map was her brainchild after backpacking around Europe and America and seeing the value of illustrated city drawings. Since publishing the first Melbourne Map in 1990 she moved to the country in 1997 and ventured into fish farming for 12 years then back into the arts, working for Back to Back Theatre. Seeing the enormous changes in her favourite city in the 28 years since the first project, she went on a quest to bring the enormously popular Melbourne Map image back to life, including all the new infrastructure, buildings, sporting arenas, parks and adding a few more suburbs to the drawing. Mel is delighted to be sharing this illustrated gift with Melbournians and her visitors, and is currently working away on new products and map projects.