Peter Copland Works in Meteorological Electronics (continued)

Darwin was hot and wet, and a different ball game. The RMO was, of course, one Jack Byrne; Ray Wilkie was Regional Director. The rest of the 'tech' staff were a Bureau Training School graduate, one Ian Parsons, an ex-Kiwi and DCA 'tech', Geoff someone, I think, and ex-RAAF 'tech' Keith Aiton.

The Northern Territory Regional workshop in those days was a seven by nine metre flat-roofed shed attached to the airport radar building. Air-conditioned, just, and it had taken Jack Byrne quite a few grey hairs to get that far. There were several plans for a proper workshop building, also to be located in the Bureau radar area on the airport, but it was far too hard for our so-called experts to organise, as it was Department of Defence land. Much easier to rent a workshop in a private building in the industrial area, which is what occurred in, I think, 1974. Expansion was the buzz word so the new workshop was big enough to accommodate 10 'techs' and a storeman. The rent over five years could have built our own proper workshop anywhere in Darwin.

The Darwin RFC was in the city proper, on the top floor of one of the Northern Territory Administration buildings. Expansion was also taking place here, too, and the Administration wanted their building back. So in 1973 or 1974 the RFC moved to the 7th floor of the MLC building, with the Bureau's administration housed on the floor below. The Darwin base for that noted band of Australian spies was on the floor above the RFC.

Another problem with being housed in the Administration building was with the weather observations site, particularly so for wind observations. The enclosure and Dines anemograph were at the edge of a small park 150 metres away and almost on the rim of a cliff 100 metres high. Exposure there was almost as bad as one could get, so we shifted the Dines onto the roof of the Administration building. It was a great view from the top of the Dines mast, some 30metres above street level and only 50 metres back from the cliff. These problems were solved with the move to the MLC building since, after then, all observations were made at the airport, with real-time data being provided to the RFC on the Teleplex system.

Bureau of Meteorology