Jack Johnston

Jack "Johnno" Johnston joined the Bureau from the Victorian Education Department as a trainee meteorologist in the second course of science graduates in 1938. His first assignment was as a duty forecaster in the old Melbourne Weather Room in 1939, and the following year he was posted to Darwin as the third OIC Meteorologist following Walter Dwyer and the late George Mackey. Along with most meteorologists he was in the RAAF from April 1941, and after a year or so at Rathmines in NSW he was back in Darwin from early 1944 to the end of the war.

Postwar experience included Senior Forecaster in the Victorian Divisional (now Regional) Office, and frequently Acting RD; RD Tas from 1959–1964 (following the 1956–59 reorganisation) and then RD NSW until his early retirement due to invalidity in 1968.

"Johnno's" greatest asset was his ability to establish close relationships with the media, particularly the Melbourne press and radio ("steam wireless") in the postwar period of expansion of the Bureau's activities. His friendly cooperation laid the foundation for the continued fair deal which the Vic RO enjoys.

Off duty his main recreations were gardening, reading and food, and he was an avid reader of the recipe columns in the daily papers. A prolonged attack of amoebic dysentery—a result of his tropical wartime service—curbed his culinary activities somewhat, and later in Sydney his eyesight started to fail. The two ailments resulted in his early retirement.

"Johnno" was one of the many memorable characters in the Bureau, and was renowned for his addiction to catch phrases with which he larded his conversation, such as "Away she goes", "Basically", and his favourite, "That's the turnout".

Bureau of Meteorology