Meteorology as a science was still in its infancy, not only in Queensland, where the Weather Office had been set up only in 1887, but also in the world. The weather has always been a topic of interest and conversation, especially to farmers and sailors whose lives are vitally affected by its vagaries, but it was only in the latter half of the nineteenth century that attempts to predict it were made. Two Sea-Captains, Robert Fitzroy of the Royal Navy, and the US Navy's Edward Maury, were pioneers in the field. Maury collected and collated weather information from log-books, and was instrumental in organising the first Meteorological Conference in Brussels in 1853. In the 1860s, Fitzroy, with the help of the British Government, set up a network of twenty-four reporting stations in Europe and England, from which weather reports were telegraphed to him in London. From these he compiled a 'Synoptic Chart' (giving it the name still used today) by joining with a line, places of the same barometric pressure. Thus he was able to determine the usual pattern of weather movement in the area, and to make predictions daily for the following day, with the primary aim of warning ships of the approach of bad weather. Although it was such a new and undeveloped country, Australia kept level with the Old World in the developing interest in meteorology. Fitzroy's method of predicting the weather was followed by several of the Government Astronomers in the Australian Colonies. Charles Todd in South Australia was also Postmaster General, and made it a duty of his widespread network of Telegraphic Operators to collect and dispatch weather observations, which were carefully recorded, and he prepared weather maps and published weather information. In New South Wales, Henry Russell, also the Government Astronomer, set up a similar system, kept weather records, and in 1877 published the first weather map to accompany his daily forecast. Melbourne's first weather map was published in the Argus in 1881.

Bureau of Meteorology