Chapter 4: The Bureau Begins to Grow

Soon after (about 1938) Barkley died suddenly of a heart attack. He had made a lot of proposals to the Public Service Board (PSB) recommending the expansion of the Bureau to meet the needs of civil aviation and the RAAF. The PSB was becoming embarrassed about their delay in dealing with these proposals and decided to appoint H. N. Warren (the Public Service Inspector for Tasmania) to the Bureau to handle the expansion of the Bureau which Barkley and others had recognised as an urgent requirement for aviation and defence. That is how Warren moved into place as Assistant Director.

Watt was a rather strange individual. He had a great sense of humour, could laugh at himself, but had something of the larrikin in his makeup. He was a personable, popular personality.

In the 1920s there had been a steady growth in civil aviation in Australia. Kingsford Smith had founded Australian National Airways (ANA) with tri-motored Fokkers. By the 1930s some aerodromes had been established near capital cities and in other places but there were few facilities to assist the aviator. The only ground based radio was an AWA station near the reservoir on Essendon aerodrome operated by a man named Gus Hart. Barkley was keen for the Bureau to assist by providing weather information. Over a period of about six months I made frequent visits to Essendon discussing weather problems with Gus Hart.

Bureau of Meteorology