However, serious differences of opinion emerged. Pietro Baracchi, who had succeeded Ellery as Victorian Government Astronomer in 1895, issued a dissenting statement with the conference report in which he concurred with the view expressed earlier by his observatory's Board of Visitors. The astronomical and meteorological work of the observatories should, Baracchi argued, be completely separated, the meteorological work being transferred to a new federal bureau while 'the Astronomical Observatories of Australia, relieved of all their present meteorological duties', should 'remain independent state institutions'.[103] W. E. Cooke from Western Australia also filed a supplementary statement indicating that, though under present conditions he supported the recommendations of the majority, it would be best, if cost were no object, to have 'a separate meteorological bureau in each State, with a central institution for co-ordinating these and undertaking scientific investigations at the Federal Capital'.[104] In the event, Cooke's caution was justified. He correctly foresaw, as Baracchi and his Board of Visitors did not, that removing the meteorological functions from the state observatories would come at the expense of the support they received for their astronomical work.

Bureau of Meteorology