Resilience Forged In Steel Scott Apelt's Journey From Tragedy To Triumph Through Scrap Metal Art

From a hammerhead shark made from a hammer and butter knives to a hand grenade made from trailer bearings and a BMX bike brake lever, Scott Apelt’s mind is full of weird, wonderful and unique creations.

Scott’s been tinkering with scrap metal art for 35 years, utilising his natural understanding of steel to manipulate and create.

While scrap metal art has always been important to him, it’s come to play an even more vital role in his wellbeing in recent years.

Scott completed his boilermaker apprenticeship in Brisbane, where he grew up, and went on to work for heavy transport companies in their research and development departments.

He would always work on scrap metal art in his spare time, even creating armour for medieval reenactments.

His career trajectory was proof of his talent, taking opportunity after opportunity until he found himself working in the marine and boating industry.

Scott finished his working week one day in June 2017, six days before his 41st birthday, and was making his way home on his motorcycle when another motorcycle rider cut him off.

“I overreacted and hit too much front brake, I got catapulted and it wasn’t very nice,” Scott reflected.

“The last thing I remember, I was getting thrown over the handlebars and I remember coming to a complete stop and smelling wet grass and dirt and another person running towards me and I went, ‘Yeah, mate, I know I’m f*cked.’”

Scott spent the next 18 months at Princess Alexandra Hospital, six of those in an induced coma.

“It made a mess of me,” he said.

“It was hard because I was at that pinnacle point, I was at the top of where I wanted to be, and it was because I busted my rear end working hard.”

Scott faced a long road to recovery, spending time in a wheelchair and going to therapy to get his movement back.

He still suffers from chronic PTSD, anxiety and depression as a result of the accident.

“It took me a long time for my hands to talk to my head again, and that was extremely frustrating,” he said.

Throughout his recovery, Scott reignited his passion for music and started playing bass guitar.

He also got back into metalwork, taking on projects to help improve his hand-eye coordination.

After leaving hospital, he met his partner and they moved to Townsville before purchasing a home in Home Hill where Scott focuses on his music and metal and embeds himself in the community.

Scott and his now wife Stacey established SSI Custom Fabrications, a small business that allows Scott the time and the lifestyle to bring his eccentric ideas into fruition.

Scott can be found selling his unique creations at the markets most weekends and plans to expand into Charters Towers and Townsville this year.

His contributions to Home Hill can be seen and felt throughout the town, including entering in the Home Hill Harvest Festival Ephemera, working with the Home Hill RSL Sub Branch in the restoration of unmarked graves, as well as creating the silhouette at the Comfort Stop and the Gateway to Home Hill at Lloyd Mann Park.

“I’ve already got two pieces of my art in a town that I didn’t grow up in, so I’m pretty chuffed about it all,” he said.

“It’s not something that happens overnight; it’s taken a lot of hard work to get back to this mentally, and I have my good days and I have my bad days.”

With a natural ability to read steel, Scott said metalwork is his calling and brings him solace and fulfillment.

“I wanted to give up, because I live in constant pain,” he said.

“It helps me concentrate and it helps me not be so hard on myself, because it was very traumatic.

“It gives me that satisfaction that I’ve still got the eye for it; the hands, the eye and the brain are still talking to each other.

“It’s helped me to find Scott again; I found Scott and I’m happy.”

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Scott Apelt’s love for scrap metal art guided him through his recovery from a traumatic motorcycle accident