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Table of Contents

Memories of the Bureau, 1946 to 1962

Foreword

Terminology

Prologue

Preface

Chapter 1: The Warren Years, 1946 to 1950
Warren the Man
Warren Joins the Bureau
Wartime Perceptions and Attitudes
Return to Civvy Street
Frosterley
People in the Bureau
Re-establishing and Reorganising the Bureau
Reorganisation of Central Office
The Position of Chief Scientific Officer
Post-War Reorganisation
The Haldane Story
Public Weather Services
The New South Wales Divisional Office
The Victorian Divisional Office
The Queensland Divisional Office
The South Australian Divisional Office
The Western Australian Divisional Office
The Tasmanian Divisional Office
Pre-war Services for Civil Aviation
Post-War Meteorological Service for Aviation
Indian Ocean Survey Flight
The Aviation Field Staff
Synoptic Analysis, Prognosis and Forecasting
Antarctic and Southern Ocean Meteorology
A Wider Scientific Horizon
Research, Development and Special Investigations
Analysts' Conference, April 1950
Instruments and Observations
Radiosondes
Radar Winds and Radar Weather Watch
Telecommunications
Climate and Statistics
Training
Publications
CSIRO
The Universities
Achievements of the Warren Years

Chapter 2: International Meteorology

Chapter 3: The Timcke Years, 1950 to 1955

Chapter 4: A Year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Chapter 5: The Dwyer Years, 1955 to 1962

Chapter 6: A Springboard for the Future

Appendix 1: References

Appendix 2: Reports, Papers, Manuscripts

Appendix 3: Milestones

Appendix 4: Acknowledgements

Appendix 5: Summary by H. N. Warren of the Operation of the Meteorological Section of Allied Air Headquarters, Brisbane, 1942–45

Endnotes

Index
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The Queensland Divisional Office

Colonial meteorology started later in Queensland than in NSW and Victoria. A Government meteorologist maintained an office in Brisbane in the 1860s and Clement Wragge, a colourful Government meteorologist, maintained the office from 1887. The interesting story of George Bond who worked with and succeeded Wragge is told in Metarch Papers No 3 (1986) by his daughters, Mrs Dorothy Spinks and Mrs Isabel Haynes.

In 1937 A. S. (Stan) Richards had been transferred from the Bureau's Central Office in Melbourne to take over the position of Divisional Meteorologist from the long-serving George Bond. Employed by Clement Wragge in 1892 when aged 18, George had worked in that office for 45 years. Tommy Hartshorn, who also worked under Wragge, was still in the Divisional Office during the war. In most States there were former employees of the colonial meteorological services who became members of the Bureau in 1908, some remaining in the Bureau until 1947.

The most critical responsibility of the Divisional Office was the prediction and warning of tropical cyclones. Flood warning was also a major responsibility.

As in the other Divisional Offices war's end saw an influx of younger meteorologists with higher academic qualifications than most pre-war meteorologists and with more modern ideas. These included Arch Shields, Vic Bahr, Allan Brunt and Allen Bath.

One of the features of the Queensland and other Divisional Offices was the development of a climatological section to provide information on the climate of individual regions. These sections advised a wide range of customers in primary and secondary industry.

Queensland had the distinction of having a well known private long-range forecaster, Inigo Jones, who issued forecasts for up to 12 month in advance. A certain vagueness in the wording of forecasts and the occasional spectacular success of his predictions earned him a wide group of subscribers to his long-range predictions, especially among the rural community. A number of expert committees commissioned by the Commonwealth Government to report on Inigo Jones' long-range forecasts concluded that they showed no evidence of skill.


People in Bright Sparcs - Bahr, Victor John; Bath, Allen Tristram; Bond, George Grant; Brunt, Allan Thomas; Jones, Inigo Owen; Richards, Alfred Stanley (Stan); Shields, Archibald John; Warren, Herbert Norman; Wragge, Clement Lindley

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Gibbs, W. J. 1999 'A Very Special Family: Memories of the Bureau of Meteorology 1946 to 1962', Metarch Papers, No. 13 May 1999, Bureau of Meteorology

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