Chapter 2: Some New Vistas (continued)

Barkley's title was Assistant Director Research and the Assistant Meteorologists in his section were Timcke, Treloar and Jack Hogan (1896–1970), with Meteorological Assistants Cornish and Tregenza. The Research Section did little work on the physics and dynamics of the atmosphere.

Treloar was interested in those aspects and told me one day that if the mathematical equations of the dynamics of the atmosphere were known and if there were sufficient observations of the state of the atmosphere it would be possible to construct tomorrow's weather chart. He added that it might take three years to finish the computations. So Treloar anticipated numerical prediction in meteorology. He may have learnt of Richardson's work in England.

Treloar used to sit in a corner of the room he shared with other staff and study such subjects. He had a science degree from the University of Adelaide at that time.

His brothers ran a legal firm and with the idea that he might join the firm one day he mentioned that he contemplated working to gain a law degree. I asked him whether he had studied Latin, which was a prerequisite for law students in those days. He replied that he was studying at night to gain that necessary qualification. He achieved his ambition by obtaining LLB by part-time study.

Although a small man, Treloar was a good athlete, playing as rover for the Torrens Australian Rules football club in Adelaide, playing cricket as wicket-keeper and playing a great deal of tennis in later life.

Treloar was unconventional in many ways. He called tenders in the local newspaper at Camberwell inviting tenders for medical services to his family. Twenty medical practitioners responded and he signed a contract with one to attend to any member of his family for any illness in the coming year.

Bureau of Meteorology