Melanoma Institute Australia is a national affiliated network of melanoma researchers and clinicians. The majority are based at The Poche Centre in
Wollstonecraft near North Sydney – the world’s largest melanoma research and treatment facility. It is from here that our specialists pioneer new research, conduct clinical trials, and develop new treatments. MIA also has its world-class research laboratory housed within the Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney. This is a translational research group headed by MIA’s Co-Medical Directors, Professors Georgina Long AO and Richard Scolyer AO.

MIA is a multi-disciplinary team – including surgeons, medical oncologists, dermatologists, pathologists, researchers, nurses, biobank specialists and psychologists – works collaboratively under the one roof, enhancing the exchange of ideas, fast tracking research and providing patients with ground-breaking melanoma treatment and support.

Approximately 2,000 new melanoma and complex skin cancer patients are referred into MIA each year, and MIA has approximately 20,000 patient visits per annum.

MIA also has sites in Wagga Wagga providing treatment and support for melanoma patients and their families throughout the NSW Riverina, and in Perth and Hobart to support patients and their families throughout Western Australia and Tasmania.

Melanoma Institute Australia evolved from the Sydney Melanoma Unit, which was founded in the early 1960s by Professor Gerald Milton AO.

The Poche Centre was opened in 2010 thanks to the generosity of Greg Poche AO and Kay Van Norton Poche AO. The couple was looking for a worthy cause to support, and Greg turned to his lifelong friend Reg Richardson AO for advice. Reg immediately thought of his friend, Associate Professor Jonathan Stretch AM, melanoma surgeon and then Deputy Director of the Sydney Melanoma Unit.

Reg knew money was desperately needed for substantial research and a dedicated space to treat the growing caseload of melanoma patients. At the time, the Poche’s $40 million donation to build the aptly named Poche Centre, was the largest ever by an Australian to a single cause.

Construction of The Poche Centre enabled MIA’s multi-disciplinary team to work collaboratively under the one roof. Reg Richardson AM became the founding Chairman of Melanoma Institute Australia. Professor John Thompson AO was the inaugural Executive Director and Associate Professor Jonathan Stretch AM Deputy Director.

In 2017, MIA’s new Co-Medical Directors, Professors Richard Scolyer AO and Georgina Long AO, were appointed to lead MIA’s mission of zero deaths from melanoma. This is a goal MIA hopes to achieve by 2030.

In early 2020, Melanoma Institute Australia merged with Amie St Clair Melanoma in Wagga Wagga and melanomaWA in Perth, Western Australia. Both mergers resulted in MIA providing enhanced services and support for melanoma patients and their families in the Riverina region of NSW and throughout WA.

In 2022, Skin Cancer Tasmania became part of Melanoma Institute Australia, providing strengthened local services in Tasmania for melanoma patients and their families.