A clear understanding of the connexion of meteorological phenomena among themselves, and a distinct delineation of the frame, within which the meteorology of a country, or place, moves during so short a period as five days, are the primary conditions for a marked advance in our science, alike with regard to theoretical speculation and practical application.[34]

For his country observing stations, Neumayer sought to have the meteorological observing assigned wherever possible to telegraph station managers. However, despite the scheme receiving the blessing of Samuel McGowan, Victoria's Superintendent of Telegraphs, difficulties persisted. Neumayer's stated rationale for using telegraph operators is revealing. 'I am ... of opinion', he wrote, 'that this will be the only mode to insure regularity in observation and registration, and rapidity of communication in cases of particular interest, where corresponding observations are required.'[36] It was thus primarily the regularity of the telegraph operator's duties that attracted Neumayer's eye, rather than his access to the telegraph. Neumayer clearly envisaged utilizing the telegraph only for urgent matters such as tracking major storms, not for the routine transmission of station reports; and in this he reflected standard views at the time.

Soon afterwards, attitudes changed dramatically. Rather than being seen as a convenience, the telegraph came to be regarded in Australia, as elsewhere, as the key to a veritable sea change in meteorology. By its use, data recorded at specified times at a number of stations could be at once transmitted to a central office so as to give a picture of the weather over the entire region covered by the observing stations, and of the way in which it changed over time. The telegraph became, in Todd's words,

to the meteorologist what the telescope is to the astronomer, in extending his field of view over large areas of the earth's surface, enabl[ing] the observer to mark and watch the birthplace of storms, track their course and rate of translation ... He was no longer confined to his own particular locality, laboriously compiling statistics and studying local prognostics; he could look far around him, see storms a thousand or more miles distant, and tell people with a considerable amount of confidence when they might be expected and what would be their force.[37]

Bureau of Meteorology