After the training I was sent to the Kingsford Smith Aerodrome (Mascot, Sydney) meteorological office in January 1938 where my mentor was Mr A. C. White MC. He was the sole staff and he had opened the office about late November or early December 1937. There was a wooden hut partitioned down the middle, one half being the radio office and the other the meteorological office. The radio man was Mr Jack Christie, and he was the only one; and the radio facility was supplied by Amalgamated Wireless of Australia (AWA).

A. C. White using a pilot balloon theodolite to measure upper wind. (Photograph courtesy of Flying in New South Wales. Oct.-Nov.-Dec., 1939.)

Arthur White had been already an employee of the Bureau and was one of those who participated in the short conversion course in Melbourne in mid 1937, to enable them to start off some of the meteorological offices which were just opening at aerodromes [2]. Arthur White had earlier been a farmer under the returned soldiers settlement scheme—at Ardlethan in southwestern NSW. He had been commissioned serving in the First World War, and had won the MC. When I arrived in Mascot he and his family had moved into a cottage not far from the aerodrome.

The buildings at Mascot prior to the establishment of the meteorological office there in late 1937. 1934 (Photograph courtesy Australian Civil Aviation Authority.)

The buildings at Mascot prior to the establishment of the meteorological office there in late 1937. (Photograph courtesy Australian Civil Aviation Authority.)

The buildings at Mascot prior to the establishment of the meteorological office there in late 1937. 1935 (Photograph courtesy J.D. Payens.)

Thus the two of us now comprised the staff of the meteorological office, and I was permitted to forecast under guidance. Later in 1938 (October) we were called Assistant Meteorologist or Weather Officer (£306–510). Still later we acquired an assistant called an Observer, Mr E. (Ted) Beattie. A few months after that a second Observer joined us. These two had been trained on No 1 Observers Course in Melbourne in late 1938. Ted Beattie had been formerly employed in the Sydney Divisional Office for some time.

Bureau of Meteorology