A few months later, arrangements were made with the Directorate of Technical Services, RAAF headquarters, for all aircraft sextants in use by the Australian squadrons to be repaired and tested by the instrument section, since aircraft depots were then not in a position to provide the laboratories, workshops and qualified technical direction to achieve the necessary degree of accuracy. This was the commencement of a large amount of non-meteorological work carried out by the section for the RAAF. By the closing stages of the war, it had grown to include all optical work and calibrations for the Air Force, as well as type testing of a large range of Australian made aircraft instruments.

In order to do this, larger workshops were needed, so that, in December 1942, approximately 2000 square feet of floor space at 335 Flinders Lane, Melbourne, was allotted to the section. These premises, in addition to those at D.Met.S. headquarters, were maintained until December 1945 when the staff of the instruments section had reached 45, embracing RAAF instrument makers and aircraft hands, together with WAAAF clerks and equipment assistants.

Despite the added responsibilities of so much extraneous work, the task of equipping the section for standards and equipment testing proceeded throughout this time. When the war ended, its laboratories were well equipped with the necessary instruments for testing and calibrating modern meteorological equipment—in fact, a tribute to the scientific standard achieved is given by the fact that they were frequently used for examination of captured Japanese weather equipment, as well as enemy non-meteorological instruments.

For the development of this side of the section's activities, credit goes largely to Fl Lt Martin, Fl Lt G. Elston (who succeeded Sqn Ldr Cornish as officer in charge in March 1945) and Fl Lt H. W. A. N. Brann.

Bureau of Meteorology