Research (continued)

J. C. Foley worked for many years on a major drought project. He examined an extensive collection of newspaper accounts of drought dating from 1853 to 1956 and prepared a chronicle of all major droughts in Australia from the early years of settlement to 1955. He also examined rainfall records spanning that period and constructed mass curves of rainfall as drought indicators. The result of his efforts was published as Bureau Bulletin No 43 (Foley, 1957). His definitions of drought and its documentation were landmarks in Bureau publications. It excited an interest in drought which I have retained. When I was appointed Director of Meteorology in 1962 I resolved to maintain a personal scientific involvement in one particular area of meteorology and chose climate, with the emphasis on rainfall and the study of drought. I owe much to Foley for what has been an absorbing study.

Another of Foley's achievements was the reproduction of daily MSL pressure charts for Australia which he reproduced by hand on large sheets of paper, each chart occupying a space no larger than that of a postage stamp. He used this collection to identify the occurrence of significant weather events such as severe storms, floods and droughts before the days when microfilm became the accepted method of recording such data.

AMM No 1 of July 1952 mentions that J. C. Foley attended the meeting of the ANZAAS, but does not mention whether he delivered a paper at that session. It is interesting to recall that at the time of the first meeting of the AAAS, H. C. Russell, NSW Government Astronomer and Meteorologist, was the President of that body, which was the forerunner of ANZAAS. At that time the term Australasia was used to denote the collection of colonies of Australia and New Zealand.

Bureau of Meteorology