Then in the 1920s, Inigo Jones succeeded Mr Cumming Ogg in the role of long-range forecaster. He had been employed by the Weather Bureau in 1891 as a youth of sixteen, resigning in 1892 to accompany his parents to live in the country, and his place was taken by the seventeen year old George Bond. Clement Wragge left a lasting impression on the young Inigo, who did not relinquish his interest in the weather when he left the Bureau. He accepted Wragge's cycle and sunspot theories, and developed them further, corresponding with scientists with similar interests all over the world. Like Wragge, Inigo Jones was a charismatic figure, eager to be in the public eye, always willing to lecture and present his views to all kinds of audiences. As usual, he had his largest following among the farmers and graziers, but he was well known to the city dwellers too. In 1926 the Council of Agriculture requested the Queensland Government to support Mr Jones in his valuable work in meteorological research, and this was later done, allowing Inigo to establish his observatory at Crohamhurst.

Letters to the paper by H. A. Hunt and G. G. Bond, explaining their strict adherence to scientifically sound methods of forecasting, were usually mild in tone, but Mr Hunt, in a letter to the Courier in 1926 was somewhat heated: 'The net effect of sunspot variation on weather is not large. It is impossible to tell their effect on specific parts of the State . . . One could continue almost indefinitely the exposures of fallacies in the statements of self constituted authorities. Unfortunately we generally find out that, however ridiculous the arguments of these gentlemen, they continue to have a following. If they had genuine discoveries to describe, they would do it through the proper channels'.[26]

Bureau of Meteorology