Public Weather Services

After Federation in 1901 this continued although it was recognised that the new Commonwealth Government, then located in Melbourne, would assume responsibility for this service. The processes for the formal creation of the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology were not finalised until 1908 and the history of the operation of meteorological services from 1901 to 1908 has yet to be written.

Hogan (1986), Lillywhite (1992), Hannay (1994), Gibbs (1995) and Cornish (1996) provide some information on the operation of Central Office and the Divisional Offices. With the creation of the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology in 1908 it took some time for the Divisional Offices in each State to change their method of operation from that of the earlier colonial meteorological offices, the main change occurring in Melbourne, the seat of the Commonwealth Parliament, where the Central Office of the newly created Bureau was established. As Hogan and Cornish describe, the Commonwealth Meteorologist, H. A. Hunt, sought to coordinate public weather services throughout the Commonwealth but the Divisional Meteorologists, in charge of the separate Divisional Offices in each State, tended to act with a large measure of independence in providing meteorological services for the general public. The general public reaction was to regard the Divisional Offices as the State Weather Bureaus and within the Bureau the Divisional Offices were commonly referred to as the Sydney Bureau, Perth Bureau, etc.

Bureau of Meteorology