After university and teachers' college Keith taught briefly at two intermediate high schools. Not enjoying the role of a schoolmaster, in 1937 Keith successfully applied for a position in the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology. He attended the first Bureau training course for professionally qualified meteorologists (described in Metarch Papers No 4 by the late John Lillywhite).

The rapid development of civil aviation and the requirements of Australia's defence forces (especially the RAAF) had convinced the Commonwealth Government of the need to upgrade the country's meteorological services. The training course which Keith attended was a focal point in this development.

The first of the two articles in this volume describes the primitive facilities with which Keith and other pioneer meteorologists began a specialist service for aviation from offices located on airports. Keith served as a forecaster at the newly established aviation forecasting offices at Mascot (Kingsford Smith) aerodrome and Rose Bay flying boat base.

With the outbreak of war with Germany in 1939 high level discussions decided that the Bureau of Meteorology should be located in the Department of Air and that certain of its employees should be invited to volunteer for service in the RAAF.

Bureau of Meteorology