All in all, the conference was most successful. A co-operative air pervaded proceedings, and a firm basis was laid for an enhanced system of intercolonial meteorological reporting. To consolidate these gains, the participants agreed that another meeting should be convened a year later. In the event, this meeting was held in Melbourne on 21-27 April 1881, under Ellery's chairmanship, with the same four in attendance. The other colonies were again invited to send representatives but declined to do so. The Tasmanian government indicated support for the objectives of the meeting and promised to communicate its views in writing, but these were never forthcoming.

The second conference, like the first, dealt chiefly with technical matters.[68] Each man reported how far he had implemented the recommendations from the previous conference, and on experiments on subjects identified at that meeting as needing further investigation. There was thus a distinct sense of continuity between the 1879 and 1881 conferences. Russell, Ellery and Todd all reported having established additional first-class stations, while Hector recounted the problems he had faced because of a division of authority in New Zealand between the Meteorological Department, which he headed and which furnished observational data, and the Weather Signal Department, which issued storm warnings. The two departments had recently been amalgamated under his command, enabling a rationalization to bring the methods of observing, recording and reporting into line with the 1879 recommendations. A new first-class station had been established on the Chatham Islands, and he was also receiving 'valuable observations' from Fiji. Russell had not been successful in persuading the Queensland Government to co-operate, but Todd had had better luck in Western Australia, where the Surveyor-General, Malcolm Fraser, had begun supplying observations made at 7.30 a.m. daily so as to reach the eastern colonies in time for their reports.

Bureau of Meteorology