Born in 1926, Milton claims he has long been concerned with, if not a little obsessed, with the challenge of making pots. He belongs to a ceramic tradition of some eight thousand years however, his works are undeniably and uniquely Australian. His initial creative inspirations were drawn from the beauty of the coastal areas of Eastern Australia and from the mountain areas of the Great Dividing Range that stretch from North Queensland to the extreme South of Victoria. But the most lasting inspiration has come from the inland of Australia, more particularly from the Gammon and Flinders Ranges and from the Olary Uplands of South Australia, and more recently from the Pilbara and Kimberley areas of Western Australia, where dating of the rock engravings place them as being amongst the oldest marks left by human-kind anywhere in the world.
Milton, a ceramist for over fifty years has been both lecturer and practicing potter. He has studied in many countries, as a recipient of a foundation Winston Churchill Fellowship and also as a Myer Foundation Geijutsu Fellow. His works are in all major Australian Collections. As one of Australia’s most senior potters, in the 1984 Queens Birthday Honours he was made a Member of the Order of Australia. In 1991 he was accorded a retrospective of his work, covering a period of thirty-five years, at the Art Gallery of South Australia. In 1992 he was a recipient of an Advance Australia Foundation Award and then in 1993, for a period of five years, he became a recipient of the most prestigious of art awards given by the Australian Government, an Australian Artists Creative Fellowship. Milton has now in 2008 received an Honorary Doctrate from the University of South Australia for his long-standing contribution of excellence to the arts.