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Table of Contents

Memories of the Bureau of Meteorology

Preface

Memories of the Bureau of Meteorology 1929–1946 by Allan Cornish
Foreword
Chapter 1: My Early Days in the Bureau
Chapter 2: Some New Vistas
Chapter 3: The RAAF Measures Upper Air Temperatures
Chapter 4: The Bureau Begins to Grow
Chapter 5: My Voyage in Discovery II
Chapter 6: The Birth of the Instrument Section
Chapter 7: Darwin Days
Chapter 8: I Leave the Bureau

History of Major Meteorological Installation in Australia from 1945 to 1981 by Reg Stout

Four Years in the RAAF Meteorological Service by Keith Swan

The Bureau of Meteorology in Papua New Guinea in the 1950s by Col Glendinning


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Foreword (continued)

Allan and Jan stayed that night at the Trust House Inn in Padstowe. When Allan asked if they could have a bed for the night and gave his name they said 'welcome home Mr Cornish'. Allan had searched the phone book in Truro and couldn't find one listing of the name Cornish.

In Truro Allan visited the technical museum because Watt (the inventor of the steam engine) came from Truro. Allan discovered that Watt's steam engine was a reciprocating device for pumping water out of tin mines. That particular steam engine produced no rotary motion. It was George Stephenson who invented the railway steam engine which drove the wheels on an engine.

Allan's father was born at a place called Bungaree about ten miles from Ballarat and was the eldest of a family of four girls and three boys. Their farm at Bungaree was a Crown allotment, formerly part of a gold-mining area. Allan's mother was born at Bularto about ten miles from Daylesford right on top of the range. Allan's maternal grandfather was born in Australia as was his mother's mother.

There were no internal combustion tractors at that time. Harvesters were just coming into use. Allan's grandfather had the problem of having six sons to keep busy so he bought a steam traction engine, a thresher, a chaff cutter, a wagon and a water tank. Grandfather and his sons would start at Swan Hill and work southward through the State as the crops ripened using their machinery to thresh the grain.

Two of Allan's uncles would go ahead on horses, contracting with farmers to provide and operate the steam engine and ancillary equipment, and to ensure that labour was available. It was necessary to have about 20 people to operate the thresher, cart the wheat and oats, and shift the bags out. Families would help each other in working bees.


People in Bright Sparcs - Cornish, Allan William; Watt, William Shand

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Cornish, A., Stout, R., Swan, K and Glendinning, C. 1996 'Memories of the Bureau of Meteorology', Metarch Papers, No. 8 February 1996, Bureau of Meteorology

© Online Edition Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre and Bureau of Meteorology 2001
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