In the late 1920s there was quite a deal of support for the idea that Australia's weather was governed by meteorological developments in the Antarctic, and that if these were monitored by a series of weather stations in Antarctica, considerable foreknowledge of weather in Australia could be provided. The eminent Australian scientist Sir Edgeworth David and Dr J. Park Thompson supported the idea. However, when the Antarctic explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins sought Australian Government support for an expedition to Antarctica, to set up his proposed line of meteorological stations, the Government, on the advice of H. A. Hunt, refused his request. It was Mr Hunt's view that Australia's weather was governed far more by equatorial influences than by what was happening in Antarctica.

The ability to induce rainfall by artificial means has always been very desirable. This too, has received much attention over the years, from the time of Clement Wragge and his attempt in 1902 to produce rain by firing his vertical guns. Sir Oliver Lodge in 1914 suggested charging the clouds with electricity by the flying of kites at high altitudes. From Africa came news of an experiment of dropping electrified sand on clouds from aeroplanes. In 1925 a suggestion was made in Brisbane, that Hertzian wireless waves could be used to act on the electrons forming molecules of moisture in the atmosphere, to produce rain. In 1930, in Amsterdam, Dr Verrant was provided with a Squadron of Air Force planes to carry out his experiment of dropping ice on clouds to produce rain. (A shower of rain fell immediately.) So the experiments and the controversies have continued, but despite the great advantage that would come from a foreknowledge of the weather, and the ability to produce rain when required, no reliable way to do either, has yet been found.

Bureau of Meteorology