Retrospect (continued)

Finally, in answering the questions posed in the introduction to this thesis, it is suggested that a combination of internal and external factors influenced the Bureau in its transformation from Public Service backwater to a vital and independent force within international meteorology. It has been seen that in its early years Bureau policy and practice tended to be largely reactive in nature. Since the 1950s, however, it has been the combined efforts of a number of individuals within the organisation which have forced it to change, often in the face of strong and concerted opposition.

It has also been seen that the Bureau has dispelled any doubts sown by the Simpson report over the wisdom of having a research group within a service department, and has successfully insulated BMRC from the daily pressures inherent in running such a department. At the same time, it has encouraged the cross-fertilisation of ideas between working meteorologists and research scientists.

As one of the outside factors which have had an impact on the Bureau, CSIRO has itself been changed by this contact in that it could be argued that it may have been Taffy Bowen's experience of working with Bureau staff during the war which prompted him to urge his executive to move into the area of seasonal forecasting. This led to the formation of what was to later become Division of Atmospheric Research, itself now a major player in the fields of atmospheric and climate research. The prior existence of the Bureau somewhat restricted the range of research topics available to CSIRO scientists, although there was some overlap and corresponding rivalry in the periods both before the formation of the CMRC and ANMRC and following their disbandment.

Bureau of Meteorology