An action man of journalism

Emma-Kate Symons
The Australian 9/3/07

IT was over bad tapas and warm beer at the ASEAN summit in The Philippines in January that Morgan explained to me why he had become a journalist.

"It was Neil Davis. You know that book One Crowded Hour?" he said. "That really got me."

Then Morgan, one of the better and easily one of the most handsome raconteurs in a business of story-tellers, proceeded to outline the colourful details of Davis's swashbuckling life as a media man.

How the cameraman/photojournalist loved Southeast Asia - loved the weather, loved the people, loved the women and most of all the conflict zones; how fearless he was about getting the story; and how he eventually filmed his own death when he was shot during a coup in Bangkok in the 1980s.

Davis took even more risks and lived longer than Morg's, whose long-held dream to become a foreign correspondent - after a stellar career doing a "desk job", as he termed his political and business reporting days - lasted only a year.

No other 36-year-old managed to pack so much adventure, romance, travel and professional success into his last few years than Morgan Mellish.

In less than two years he embarked on a wild round-the-world travel odyssey, moved to Indonesia to become Jakarta correspondent for The Australian Financial Review, and won his first Walkley award.

During his 2005 trip he regaled mates with cheeky emails and photos detailing the extraordinary four-month trip though North, Central and South America, when he surfed, skied, fished, danced, learned Spanish and charmed Latin women across the continent.

Morgan was an action man in every sense of the word.

He was frank about the dangers of working in developing countries. He told me how frightened his translator and other local staff were about flying around Indonesia, after the string of aviation disasters.

He wasn't so thrilled, either. But he explained that there was little choice when you had to get to a remote area, and fast.

In his phone were pictures of his beautiful Indonesian girlfriend. He explained that at 36, after a wild couple of years travelling, working and living life to the max, he was just about ready to "decide", get married and have kids (though not necessarily settle down).

The last emailed photos I received from Morgan last month were of him standing in front of mud volcanoes. "Just another way to die in Indonesia" was the deadpan caption.

With that sense of humour, Morgan had a rare ability to be at the same time a bloke's bloke and a woman's man. Despite his laconic, larrikin exterior and Bryan Brown-lookalike Aussie hunk good looks, he was a sensitive soul blessed with a practical wisdom he would happily hand on to his mates upon request.

His sister Caroline emailed his friends yesterday to explain that "unfortunately Morgan was on that plane, the nice guy swapped his ticket and was not meant to be on it at all. But you know him, he would not have wanted to go out quietly. I am in Yogyakarta at the moment and will be till I bring our boy home".