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Table of Contents

Glimpse of the RAAF Meteorological Service

Preface

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1: Growing Up
Early Australian Meteorologists
Early Days in the Bureau
Forecasters' Training Course
My Classmates
Reorganisation of the Bureau
Love and Marriage

Chapter 2: Port Moresby Before Pearl Harbour

Chapter 3: Port Moresby After Pearl Harbour

Chapter 4: Allied Air Force HQ and RAAF Command, Brisbane

Chapter 5: Japan Surrenders and We Are Demobilised

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

Appendix 1: References

Appendix 2: Milestones

Appendix 3: Papers Published in Tropical Weather Research Bulletins

Appendix 4: Radiosonde Observations 1941–46


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My Classmates (continued)

I cannot recall making any trips to the countryside except on one or two weekends when Jack McDonough crammed about four of us into his small car for a trip to the Mount Buller snowfields. I remember we left before dawn and were driven by Jack at lightning speed to Buller, where we sampled the art of skiing, returning to Melbourne after dark. Most weekends we explored Melbourne and rode on the cable cars which at that time plied over a network of routes in the city. Being practically on the doorstep of the St Kilda Cricket Ground, which adjoined the St Kilda railway station, we attended home football matches and I can distinctly remember seeing Jack Dyer of Richmond and Keith Miller of St Kilda in action.

For those of us from warmer climates the overcast bleak weather and incessant winter fogs were depressing. I can well remember when, to keep warm in the early morning, we ran in small circles in the dense fog while waiting for the tram.

Six months quickly passed and we approached our examinations. I recall that we had been given assignments during the course and remember that Bryan Rofe had been disgusted when I was given a high mark for an essay which he knew I had written in a short time. The choice of subject was left to the student. I examined the evidence of the passage of a cold front through Macquarie Island, Hobart and Melbourne. The study must have been based on data about 30 years old. I suspect that the novelty of the subject may have contributed to the examiner's high mark.

Fritz Loewe introduced an unusual examination technique by submitting each student to an individual viva voce lasting some 15 minutes. He adopted a relaxed and friendly attitude which I found most enjoyable.

We gathered on the evening of 23 August 1940 for our farewell dinner. The cover of the menu is reproduced in Figure 1. Doug Forder took individual photographs of the instructors and students. Doug was a very serious young man, highly respected by his fellow students. His dedication to his studies was complete. The dinner was a huge success and reflected the sense of cohesion that we were beginning to feel.

Menu cover

Figure 1 Cover of menu for farewell dinner for members of the 1940 Weather Officers course, held on Friday 23 August 1940 at the Prince of Wales Hotel, St Kilda. The three photographs centre top are, from left to right, Pat Allender, Lennie Dwyer and Harry Newell of the Training staff. Other photographs are of course members. Anticlockwise from top left Ashton, Brann, Brown, Clarke, Forder, Garriock, Gibbs, Greenfield, Hall, Mason, McDonough, MacKenzie, Nettle, Retallack, Rofe, Rutherford, Senior, Shields, Smallman, Wiesner, Williams, Wright.


People in Bright Sparcs - Forder, Douglas Highmoor (Doug); Loewe, Fritz; Rofe, Bryan

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Gibbs, W. J. 1995 'A Glimpse of the RAAF Meteorological Service', Metarch Papers, No. 7 March 1995, Bureau of Meteorology

© Online Edition Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre and Bureau of Meteorology 2001
Published by Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, using the Web Academic Resource Publisher
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