Antarctic and Southern Ocean Meteorology (continued)

The station at Macquarie Island continued until 1916 when another Bureau man, Harold Power, was among those lost when the relief ship Endeavour foundered. A memorial to Harold Power was attached to the wall of the lobby at 2 Drummond Street alongside another paying tribute to staff who had served in World War I. When the Bureau's now Head Office moved to new premises at 150 Lonsdale Street in 1974, those memorials were moved to the fifth floor of the new premises.

The Bureau's Alan Martin and Aub Gotley were appointed OIC when the Macquarie Island station was re-established in 1948 and a new station was built on Heard Island in December 1947.

Figure 10 A. R. Martin (yet another of the Bureau's wartime heroes) at Macquarie Island where he was officer-in-charge of the ANARE station in 1948 and at the Perth Divisional Office of the Bureau in later years.

As Cornish (1996) has pointed out, Alan Martin was a capable and innovative scientist who made a notable contribution to the work of the Instrument Section during the war years, including radiosonde development, manufacture of weather balloons and hydrogen generation. After a difference of opinion with H. N. Warren he volunteered for service with the Australian Army Z Force (Services Reconnaissances Detachment), trained as a Commando at Fraser Island, Queensland, and as a paratrooper at RAAF Station, Richmond, NSW. He was posted to the equatorial island of Morotai where he participated in a number of dangerous missions, landing behind enemy lines from small boats launched from submarines. In April he was a member of a small party of paratroopers parachuted into enemy territory in Borneo. Unfortunately the airdrop resulted in the parachutists landing in a Japanese camp. All other members of the party were captured and shot but Alan's parachute became entangled in an upper story of the tropical rainforest, enabling him to avoid capture. Thinking he was closer to the ground than was the case Alan cut his parachute shrouds and severely injured his back in falling. Narrowly escaping capture, he was cared for by villagers and rescued by Allied forces. Despite a back injury from which he never completely recovered he never complained, subsisting on a diet in which beer was always present.

Bureau of Meteorology