In the late 1880s and early 1890s much of the work of IMO was carried out by correspondence. Ellery (Victorian Government Meteorologist who succeeded Neumayer) was a corresponding member of the IMC from 1891 to 1896. H. C. Russell, NSW Government Meteorologist, had the same membership from 1896 to 1907. It is doubtful if Ellery or Russell made overseas visits to attend meetings. In those days a passenger steamship was the only method of overseas travel, and attendance at an overseas meeting meant an absence of some months.

Following the formation of the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology Hunt attended the 1919 IMO Conference of Directors in Paris and Watt the 1935 Conference of Directors in Warsaw. In 1936 Timcke attended the 1936 meeting of IMO Regional Association II (Far East) in Hong Kong. Watt attended the 1937 meeting of IMO Regional Association V (South-west Pacific) in Wellington, New Zealand.

In 1945 Dr H. V. Evatt, Foreign Minister in the Chifley Government, participated in an international conference which agreed to the formation of the United Nations Organization to replace the League of Nations which had been formed as a peace-keeper after World War I but had failed to avert the outbreak of World War II. The formation of the UN provided a focus for the discussion of post-war cooperation at the IMO Conference of Directors in Washington in 1947.

In November 1944 a meeting in Chicago decided to establish a Provisional International Civil Aviation Organization (PICAO) and in May 1946 the first formal meeting of PICAO took place in Montreal. As the result of his attachment to an Allied military meteorological committee as Australian representative in Washington DC during the war, Walter Dwyer became aware of international liaison in the field of aviation meteorology and this was to prove very useful to the Bureau.

Bureau of Meteorology