Chapter 1: My Early Days in the Bureau

Allan Cornish at home, Sandringham, Victoria, late 1992.

Rawson later sat for and topped the Clerical Examination and went straight to the office of the Public Service Inspector in the Department of Home Affairs.

At first, Met Assistants (who were in the Third Division) were trained to prepare the bulletin (a list of the observations made throughout Victoria on that day), to make the Melbourne observations and to undertake pilot balloon flights. The pilot balloon flights were made using 10 gram balloons and theodolites located on a platform built on the roof of the old Frosterley building.

The job began by making the Melbourne surface observations and despatching them by telegram. It was then necessary to prepare for the production of the bulletin by getting all the duplicating ink ready. It was a filthy job. The Met Assistant then telephoned the Bureau's Jack Emmett who was located at the Postmaster-General's Central Telegraph Office in the city. Jack decoded and called out over the phone the telegrams received from outstations. These observations, received by phone, were written directly onto the bulletin.

The telegrams consisted of a string of words, each word representing a specific pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, etc, etc. For instance the word Tragic indicated a temperature of 60 deg Fahrenheit. The words in the weather code were shortened later on. The word sex was the code word for a hot wind.

When rain was general throughout the State the bulletin took longer and was not finished until about half past one. In addition to the State bulletin an interstate bulletin was prepared. Joe Radic plotted the observations on a synoptic chart. Joe sat beside the man writing the bulletin and when he had finished plotting the observations Ackeroyd analysed the plotted chart.

Bureau of Meteorology