Early Days in the Bureau (continued)

The message would be decoded thus: WAGGA WAGGA—name of station; OBS 9 AM—observation made at 9 am; FLEETING—mean sea level pressure 30. 01 inches; TRIBE—dry-bulb temperature 75 F; TOPEKA—wet-bulb temperature 47 F; TRIPOS—maximum temperature in previous 24 hours 82 F; TODDY—minimum temperature in previous 24 hours 36 F; RAPID 4—surface wind west-south-west Beaufort force 4 (15 knots); SAFE—sky 1/4 covered by cloud; LASH—low cloud moving from west-south-west; ACTOR—rainfall during previous 24 hours 12 points (.12 inches); STUN—weather since last observation; STAR—frost.

It was necessary for Bureau staff to memorise the equivalents of most of the word code to avoid delay in plotting these observations on synoptic charts and tabulating them in bulletins for newspapers or for public display. Committing to memory the hundreds of meteorological equivalents of words in the word code was a remarkable achievement.

My four months in the Divisional Office in Sydney were a most agreeable introduction to the Bureau of Meteorology. Staff members were helpful, friendly and interesting. Davy Mares was benevolent, Barney Newman was kind, George Ainsworth was flamboyant. I was disappointed to see no evidence of the use of the Norwegian frontal analysis method. I became acquainted with the practices of the meteorological profession and became relatively proficient in making and processing meteorological observations, and was initiated into the strange rituals of the meteorological fraternity.

I was unaware of the historical significance of the astronomical observatory about 150 metres to the north on Observatory Hill. Much earlier, before the harbour bridge was erected, my main interest in the Observatory had been the sight of a large black ball dropping down a flagstaff on top of the Observatory building at 1 pm, immediately followed by the firing of a signal gun in Fort Denison on the island of Pinchgut in the harbour close to the present position of the Sydney Opera House.

Bureau of Meteorology