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Table of Contents

Memories of the Bureau, 1946 to 1962

Foreword

Terminology

Prologue

Preface

Chapter 1: The Warren Years, 1946 to 1950

Chapter 2: International Meteorology

Chapter 3: The Timcke Years, 1950 to 1955
A Period of Consolidation
Aviation Services
Services for the General Public
Rockets and Atomic Weapons
Instruments and Observations
Climate and Statistics
International Activities
Training
Publications
Research
Central Analysis and Development
CSIRO
The Universities
The Meteorology Act
Achievements of the Timcke Years

Chapter 4: A Year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Chapter 5: The Dwyer Years, 1955 to 1962

Chapter 6: A Springboard for the Future

Appendix 1: References

Appendix 2: Reports, Papers, Manuscripts

Appendix 3: Milestones

Appendix 4: Acknowledgements

Appendix 5: Summary by H. N. Warren of the Operation of the Meteorological Section of Allied Air Headquarters, Brisbane, 1942–45

Endnotes

Index
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Chapter 3: The Timcke Years, 1950 to 1955 (continued)

Timcke's reply to the Secretary (whom I believe was H. Barranger at that time) included the recommendation that, in considering the position of Director of Meteorology, positions of Chief Scientific Officer and Assistant Director (Administration) should be retained. It also recommended that the Departmental selection for the office of Director of Meteorology be made so that "the position be filled by a well-experienced and qualified meteorologist who also has the additional essential qualification of executive experience with capability of control and direction of a large and widespread Government organisation". The Secretary obviously agreed with the recommendation and Tim was appointed to the position of Director of Meteorology.

Tim was unlucky in that during his term of office the Government decided that it was necessary to drastically curtail the expense of running the Public Service. This was after the re-election of R. G. Menzies as Prime Minister in April 1951 when Mr (later Sir Wilfred) Kent-Hughes was chosen as Minister for the Interior. The new Government believed that overall Government spending should be reduced. The Bureau was just one of many Government organisations whose budgets were affected. Bureau staff, which had numbered 222 in 1940, had increased to 647 in 1950 but was progressively reduced to a total of 555 by 1954.

Reduced staff numbers and restrictions on Bureau expenditure made it difficult to maintain the momentum developed in the Warren years. A further difficulty was that Wilfred Kent-Hughes, a man with a distinguished war record and a pillar of the Liberal Party, had a particularly arrogant and disdainful personality which made life difficult for Tim.

This contrasted with the situation in the Warren years when the Bureau had cordial and generally sympathetic support from the Ministers of the portfolios and heads of the Departments in which the Bureau was located. The relatively small and comparatively insignificant Meteorological Branch within the Ministry and Department of the Interior had little political or administrative impact during the Curtin, Chifley and Menzies Governments. The Permanent Heads of the Public Service Board, Treasury and other relevant Departments were not particularly concerned with the Bureau.

Another development which was to add to Timcke's worries was the highly secret decision of Prime Minister Menzies to accede to the request of UK Prime Minister Atlee that British atomic weapons tests should be conducted in Australia, a matter which receives more mention later in this chapter.


People in Bright Sparcs - Timcke, Edward Waldemar; Warren, Herbert Norman

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Gibbs, W. J. 1999 'A Very Special Family: Memories of the Bureau of Meteorology 1946 to 1962', Metarch Papers, No. 13 May 1999, Bureau of Meteorology

© Online Edition Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre and Bureau of Meteorology 2001
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