A system called METARCH (catalogue of meteorological archival material) has been proposed to identify and catalogue such material and some preliminary steps have been taken to initiate the project. Further information may be obtained from the Public Relations Officer, Bureau of Meteorology, GPO Box 1289K, Melbourne 3001, telephone (03) 669 4552.

In addition to the preparation of the catalogue, plans are in hand for the preparation of a series of METARCH Papers containing lists of useful references and unpublished material of archival significance. This volume, METARCH Papers No. 1, catalogues the items in the Bureau of Meteorology's house journal Weather News Nos 1–262, issued between August 1956 and December 1982.

The first editor of Weather News was T. T. Hall, D.F.C, who at the time was Chief Clerk in the Bureau's Central Office in Melbourne. It began as a loose-leaf news sheet, designed to inform Bureau staff, located at widely dispersed offices throughout the Australian continent and offshore islands, of Bureau activities and developments. In spite of the heavy workload at the time Mr Hall produced monthly issues of Weather News with items ranging over a wide variety of Bureau activities both in Australia and overseas. Beginning with issue No. 25, August 1958, items in Weather News were consecutively numbered, beginning with item 153, there having been 152 items in previous issues. This facilitates ready reference and indexing, but unfortunately the practice was discontinued beginning with issue No. 236, August/September 1976. Items from that time have been allotted numbers appearing in the catalogue and index in this volume.

Bureau of Meteorology