Hunt senior then came to Sydney as an expert in refrigerating machinery and his son, aged 18, accompanied him.

The father returned to Clydeside and the son entered the Meteorological Service of New South Wales at the Sydney Observatory.

Hunt made steady progress in the study of meteorology, particularly on weather affecting New South Wales. During these years, as assistant to H. C. Russell, he wrote several notable papers on aspects of the climate and weather of New South Wales; and he had been acting head of the weather service for two years, when, at the end of 1906, he was selected from applicants to take charge of the new Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology. He commenced his new assignment on 1 January 1907, and for the whole of that year he gave his energies enthusiastically to the task of unifying the methods of obtaining observations in the various Australian States and moulding the State Offices into one Commonwealth organisation.

Thus the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology commenced to function on 1 January 1908 with a Central Office in Melbourne and a Divisional Office in each of the other five States' capital cities.

Hunt retired in February 1931 and died 15 years later.

Before Federation, each of the six Australian Colonies maintained its Observatory, directed by the local Government Astronomer. Meteorology was added to the observatories' functions and the Astronomer also became the Government Meteorologist. This arrangement continued until the end of 1907, but while it existed, precedence was given to astronomical observations and studies.

Bureau of Meteorology