Michael Meszaros is the younger son of Hungarian-born architect, sculptor, and medallist
Andor Mészáros and his wife Elizabeth. He attended Preshil Margaret Lyttle Memorial School in
Kew and Wesley College in Melbourne. During his school years, he received artistic inspiration from his father and learned craftsmanship skills, particularly in designing and crafting medals. In 1958, he collaborated with his father to create a medal for Australian philatelist and medal collector John Gartner (1914–1998). In the 1960s, he studied
architecture at the
University of Melbourne and graduated in 1968. He then spent a year in Rome on a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Australia scholarship, studying metal sculpture and medal art at the Scuola dell’arte della medaglia. His thesis was the design of the series
Twelve Signs of the Zodiac, which he completed upon his return to Melbourne. The twelve medals were sold to collectors and donated to the
Melbourne Museum in 2011 by Jennifer M. Shaw. Michael Meszaros worked as a sculptor and medallist in Kew in his father's workshop. As a sculptor, he created over 35 major commissioned works and more than 100 other pieces. His commissioned works include a bronze relief for the 100th anniversary of
Charles La Trobe's death (1975) on the steps of
Parliament House in Melbourne, a bronze statue of
John Pascoe Fawkner (1978) at National Mutual Plaza, a monument for
William Guilfoyle in the
Royal Botanic Gardens of Melbourne, the bronze sculpture
The Mayoress in Camberwell, a suburb of
Boroondara City (1982), the groups
Man and Lady and
Mountain Cattleman (1996) in
Mount Buller, a bronze sculpture for
Sam the Koala (2011) in Mirboo North,
Gippsland, and a bronze relief for Antarctic explorer
Phillip Law. Michael Meszaros is the Vice President of the Association of Sculptors of Victoria. 's statue at
Sidney Myer Music Bowl In addition to his work as a sculptor, Michael Meszaros is best known as a medallist. He has designed and crafted over 500 medals, including those for the
Royal Australian Mint, the
Commonwealth of Australia. The
Australian Bicentenary Medal, designed in 1988 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the
First Fleet in Australia, was the second-largest issue in Australian history. For the University of
Newcastle, New South Wales, he designed the Dunkley Medal for outstanding biomedical research. Medals by Michael Meszaros are housed in institutions such as the British Museum, the Royal Dutch Coin Cabinet, and private collections in Europe, America, Australia, New Zealand, and Britain. Michael Meszaros is married and lives with his wife Elspeth in the
Alphington suburb of Melbourne. == Awards ==