Mr. G. W. Mackey—Deputy Director, Perth

Retrenchments due to lack of finance towards the end of the 1920s dealt this blow to Mr Mackey twice. He had passed through the Naval College Jervis Bay and had served in the Merchant Marine when the necessity to begin again brought him in 1927 into the Melbourne Weather Bureau as a Meteorological Assistant. Promoted to Cadet Engineer in the Postmaster General's Department in 1920, he had by 1936 accumulated valuable experience and qualifications for that career when depression retrenchments again forced him to look elsewhere.

He returned to the Bureau as Assistant Meteorologist (Research) in 1936 and the following year went to Darwin in charge of the Aviation Meteorological Office.

In 1941 he moved to Sydney, but shortly afterwards, as Squadron Leader in charge of a meteorological contingent, he was on his way to Singapore, territory which was already familiar to him as he had visited Batavia and Singapore during his tour of duty at Darwin. Evacuated from Singapore just before its fall, he and his party reached Sumatra, and for several weeks no news of them reached Australia.

When he returned, he went to North Western Area as Area Meteorologist. In 1944 he was back in Melbourne as Aviation Inspector, then went to Hobart as Divisional Meteorologist (Deputy Director). In the years since then he has been Superintendent (Aviation) and Deputy Director at Adelaide, Sydney and Perth.

Mr. Mackey has given much Of his time to P.O.A. activities. He has been a delegate for a number of years to the Federal Conference and is President of the Perth Branch.

A science graduate of Melbourne University, Mr. Mackey was elected as an Associate of the Institute of Physics (Australia) in 1947.

Bureau of Meteorology