Peter Copland Works in Meteorological Electronics (continued)

Christmas and New Year in Giles was one big party, with no expense spared; there were quite a few hangovers. One of the guys had to get me up at 3 am to help him read the slide rule. I had just gone to bed as he went to work as it was my day off. Another left his washing (with half a packet of Rinso) running all day in the Lightburn (read cement mixer) washing machine. A wonderful example of negatively coloured clothes resulted.

I was not too sad to leave Giles; I was married the next week. One had to be rather careful that the normal Giles language did not appear in mixed company. I was then permanently posted to Charleville for two to three years. Even with a new wife we did not rate a Bureau house. After six weeks in a pub we moved into a small private house on the edge of the town and remained there for the rest of our stay. We must have appeared to enjoy our stay as our neighbours, one Noel Kippen, later joined the Bureau as an Observer. I ran into the Kippen family again at Tennant Creek and then much later at both Williamtown and Cobar.

The permanent roster that I worked at Charleville would not go down too well these days. Monday 0800-1200, Tuesday 0800-1600, Wednesday 0230-1330, Thursday off, Friday 0230-1330, Saturday 0800-1600, Sunday 0800-1600. That's 45 plus hours per week and no weekends off in three years. To swap some shifts to get an odd weekend off equalled several nil time off weeks. Not having any time off with my wife, who had a job in town, saw her getting into some 'rough' company. After a couple of years she was Western Queensland B Grade small bore rifle champion, and had a 97 off the rifle score with the .303.

Bureau of Meteorology