Memories of the Bureau, 1946 to 1962
Foreword
Terminology
Prologue
J. W. Zillman Director of Meteorology
The Seven Stages in the Life and Career of Dr W. J. Gibbs
The Meteorological Legacy of Dr Gibbs
Dr Gibb's Career—An Appreciation
Preface
Chapter 1: The Warren Years, 1946 to 1950
Chapter 2: International Meteorology
Chapter 3: The Timcke Years, 1950 to 1955
Chapter 4: A Year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Chapter 5: The Dwyer Years, 1955 to 1962
Chapter 6: A Springboard for the Future
Appendix 1: References
Appendix 2: Reports, Papers, Manuscripts
Appendix 3: Milestones
Appendix 4: Acknowledgements
Appendix 5: Summary by H. N. Warren of the Operation of the Meteorological Section of Allied Air Headquarters, Brisbane, 1942–45
Endnotes
Index
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The Seven Stages in the Life and Career of Dr W. J. Gibbs (continued)
The second stage of Bill Gibbs's career saw him transferred to Port Moresby and begin his contribution to the War effort as a commissioned officer of the RAAF Meteorological Service. Although not yet incorporated into the RAAF, the Bureau was already preparing for war under its then acting Director, Mr H. N. (Norm) Warren, when Bill departed for Port Moresby in September 1940 via a brief stopover in Sydney for his wedding to Audrey Taylor. It was in Port Moresby that Bill was first faced with the challenge of weather forecasting in the tropics, at that time with little data, a challenge that he was to confront again at various stages in his career but most immediately when he was transferred in August 1942 to Allied Headquarters in Brisbane. Here he was responsible for daily weather briefings for the entire tropical belt from SE Asia eastward to the dateline. And, anxious to develop scientific dialogue on the problems of tropical forecasting with meteorologists at the various Allied outposts, he conceived and founded the Tropical Weather Research Bulletin, which was widely acclaimed by British and US meteorologists operating in the Pacific theatre of the war and which evolved into the Weather Development and Research Bulletin and, subsequently, the Australian Meteorological Magazine which included, as the first paper in its first issue, 'Notes on the Reduction of Barometer Readings' by W. J. Gibbs and which continues almost 40 years later as the principal journal for publication of scientific research in Australian and southern hemisphere meteorology. At the end of the war, with the rank of Squadron Leader, Bill was despatched to Japan to assess the Japanese systems of synoptic analysis and forecasting. He was demobilised from the RAAF on 24 May 1946. His own story of the war years is told in Metarch No. 7, his 'A Glimpse of the RAAF Meteorological Service'.The third, post-war, stage of Bill's career saw him return to the Melbourne Head Office of the Bureau, now itself back as a civilian organisation with the Department of the Interior. He was briefly tempted to University life by an invitation to the University of New England, but accepted instead the opportunity offered by then Director of Meteorology, Mr Warren, to accompany him as adviser to the wind-up meetings of the International Meteorological Organization (IMO) technical commissions in Toronto followed by the Conference of Directors in Washington DC which drafted the Convention of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) that was opened for signature on 11 October 1947. Bill's impressions of these momentous events are summarised in his 1994 World Meteorological Day Address on 'Recollections of the Achievements of the International Meteorological Organization and the World Meteorological Organization'. Among the many foci of Bill's attention back in Melbourne after his participation in the creation of WMO was the Bureau's involvement in establishment of weather observations on Heard and Macquarie Islands in the Southern Ocean and his developing interest in the nature and behaviour of the jet stream in the southern hemisphere.
People in Bright Sparcs - Gibbs, William James (Bill); Warren, Herbert Norman
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© Online Edition Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre and Bureau of Meteorology 2001
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