For most of Hamish Elsmann's adult life, communication has felt an impossibly distant task.

Then, one day, he sat at a public piano and began to play.

As his fingers fumbled up and down the keys, something clicked. Music became a language his mind could grasp.

Hamish, 42, has autism and schizoaffective disorder and lives with his father in Merino, a tiny town four hours west of Melbourne.

Every week, the father and son make the hour-long round trip to Hamilton, where Hamish plays the grand piano at the local art gallery before sketching at the library next door.

He then leaves his finished drawings for staff at the gallery’s front desk — sometimes simply sliding them under the door.

The ritual has opened a world that once felt closed.

His responses, once fragmented and brief, grew i

See Full Page