• the need for the Bureau to carry out an expanded research program into a number of problem areas that had been identified as critical to the service responsibilities of the Bureau; and


• the addition of up to thirty positions to the establishment of the Bureau so that the need could be satisfied, the type of positions to be determined by negotiations between the Bureau and the PSB.

However, whilst the scientists might have agreed amongst themselves, the PSB mandarins were less than amenable. They were not prepared to follow the precedent set by the employment of research scientists within the Department of Supply and allow Bureau staff access to the same arrangements, apparently because it was judged to be inappropriate at the time (BOM [15]).

This serious lack of agreement led Cabinet to reject the submission and discussions began between the Minister for the Interior (responsible for the Bureau) and the Minister for Education and Science (responsible for CSIRO). Finally, a joint Cabinet submission on 20 August 1969, led to the creation of the new CMRC, following a guarantee that the Bureau would be given overall control of the new Centre's research program and that CSIRO would be actively involved in the Centre's operations. It is interesting to note that, with hindsight, Priestley believed that this arrangement was superior to the original proposal for complete Bureau control of the new research organisation as set out in the Prospectus (Priestley [66]).

Bureau of Meteorology