Trevor Donald Tells It All; Life in the Bureau from 1947 to 1989

I was one of about 30 returned servicemen who received their training in the Royal Society building, Victoria Street, Melbourne. To the best of my knowledge all trainees qualified for appointment and on completion of training were posted to various locations around Australia. I was fortunate for my posting was to the weather office at RAAF Base, Fairbairn, Canberra. During my service at Canberra I was comfortably quartered in the Sergeants' Mess.

About the middle of 1948 Head Office called for volunteers for the 2nd Expedition to the Antarctic. I duly applied for selection along with a lot of other hopeful Observers. I did not make the team for 1949, however, I did get transferred to New Guinea; to Lae to be precise.

I was granted two weeks special leave in January 1949 to go south and get married. My wife to be was an ex-WAAAF and we met in the signals office at No 5 Aircraft Depot, RAAF Base Wagga, prior to being demobilised in 1946.

Our first home in New Guinea was a Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) residence at the airstrip. We were given use of these quarters until the 'met' homes were built. In actual fact the residence was originally the Salvation Army Red Shield hut during the latter stages of WWII. The building was little more than a very large shed with a concrete slab floor, timber frame and a corrugated iron roof. The timber frame was clad internally and externally with Sisalcraft (tarred paper) and fly wire. There were two doors for access and the internal ceilings consisted of three cargo parachute canopies slung from the roof. If I remember correctly, two chutes were cream coloured and one was red. We were there about twelve months before the 'met' homes were completed.

On those occasions when I was rostered on for a dog watch, my wife Dot would sometimes accompany me to the office. When she elected to remain at home she did so with a loaded revolver under the pillow.

Bureau of Meteorology