The early 1880s were crucial years in the development of meteorology in the Austra-lasian colonies. Just as the three superintendents of telegraphs in the south-eastern Australian colonies (Todd being one) had collaborated during the late 1850s on the construction of the intercolonial telegraph network linking Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, so these four colonial meteorologists developed a co-operative ethos that culminated in the standard procedures and protocols established at the 1881 conference. The more reliable and extensive reporting system that resulted gave them confidence to move from recording weather patterns after the event to issuing forecasts.

Simply to maintain the system became, however, an increasingly burdensome bureaucratic task, one that threatened to overwhelm their other scientific responsibilities. Russell, in particular, was criticized by local astronomers for allowing his observatory's astronomical work to run down in favour of meteorology.[73] Likewise, the onerous nature of Ellery's meteorological work helps explain why he was never able to develop a sustained astronomical research programme for his prime instrument, the 48-inch reflector known as the Great Melbourne Telescope, the world's largest operating telescope at the time.[74]

Bureau of Meteorology