Ray Clarke Looks Back

Observer Radio Course No 13 comprised colourful characters who made their name in one way or another. There was Neil Davies, always sharp as a tack, J. J. Byrne, always good for a dry joke or two and a cold ale or two, pleasant old Joe Grey from South Australia, Trevor Donald seemingly on top of it all, happy go lucky Jannes Keuken and, lastly, there was me, 'Clarkie'.

Our instructor? Who else but 'Mac' (John MacDermott), the doyen of the would be 'met techs'. Somehow or other we all passed the course. I can't remember who topped the class but I don't think it was me. I got the feeling 'Mac' frowned on my, to him, unorthodox methods and lateral thinking. Anyway, off we went in late October 1961 to all corners of the Bureau's network never to see each other for some years although our paths later crossed as they eventually will do in the Bureau's family.

My first posting was to Lae in November; 34°C with 85 percent humidity and I'd just left a cold 14°C Melbourne. I wanted to get back on the plane and avoid this stifling oven but I stayed and enjoyed the lifestyle which I guess at that time could be called a 'white man's Utopia'. Arthur W. Douglas (the OIC) was a legend for his hospitality, and I can recall Frank Ella, Les Onley and other observing staff who quickly showed me the ropes. I learnt at least two things in my short career at Lae—how to make quick high pressure hydrogen in the tropics without blowing yourself up and how to finish the radiosonde calculations in record time. I was sorry to eventually leave Lae, and to have my last glimpse of the Tenya Maru.

After a short stint at Cloncurry looking after a clapped out 277F radar, an unhappy inheritance from previous years, I relieved Freddie Soutter in Cairns looking after the WF1 radar at the airport and the SNW51 radar on Saddle Mountain at Kuranda. Freddie gave me a two hour briefing. Then he was off. It wasn't his fault; just the normal handover/takeover problem. Kuranda was a great place in 1962; peaceful, magnificent scenery and full of fair dinkum Aussie characters.

I look back with many happy memories of Cairns and Kuranda, even the countless snakes that frequented the mountain all the way along the access track. I recall breaking the office broom (the nearest weapon) on a black-headed python which slithered into the office area at Kuranda. Another time, at Cairns Airport, I had a nasty confrontation with a red-bellied swamp black, a good 1.5 metres long, who shared the same toilet as me. I didn't have a clue he was there until I flushed the toilet; he must have been reading the Cairns Post with me all the time. When I recovered my composure I made a desperate attempt to stone it to death, but it escaped. I broke the toilet seat and George Heath (our popular OIC) delivered me a lecture, tongue in cheek, about taking greater care of Commonwealth property. In September 1962 I assisted Reg Stout and the installation team to put in the Cossor radar. It is here that I probably caught the installation bug.

Ray Clarke at Saddle Mountain near Cairns, Queensland, 1962.

Bureau of Meteorology