Memories of the Bureau, 1946 to 1962
Foreword
Terminology
Prologue
Preface
Chapter 1: The Warren Years, 1946 to 1950
Warren the Man
Warren Joins the Bureau
Wartime Perceptions and Attitudes
Return to Civvy Street
Frosterley
People in the Bureau
Re-establishing and Reorganising the Bureau
Reorganisation of Central Office
The Position of Chief Scientific Officer
Post-War Reorganisation
The Haldane Story
Public Weather Services
The New South Wales Divisional Office
The Victorian Divisional Office
The Queensland Divisional Office
The South Australian Divisional Office
The Western Australian Divisional Office
The Tasmanian Divisional Office
Pre-war Services for Civil Aviation
Post-War Meteorological Service for Aviation
Indian Ocean Survey Flight
The Aviation Field Staff
Synoptic Analysis, Prognosis and Forecasting
Antarctic and Southern Ocean Meteorology
A Wider Scientific Horizon
Research, Development and Special Investigations
Analysts' Conference, April 1950
Instruments and Observations
Radiosondes
Radar Winds and Radar Weather Watch
Telecommunications
Climate and Statistics
Training
Publications
CSIRO
The Universities
Achievements of the Warren Years
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 Position of Chief Scientific Officer
The post-war staff structure of the Bureau's Central Office did not differ remarkably from the Directorate of the RAAF Meteorological Service except that a position of Chief Scientific Officer was created. It seems likely that this decision was the result of discussions in the committee which had met in 1940 (mentioned earlier) which had identified the need to have an efficient administrator and a distinguished scientist running the Bureau.E. G. (Taffy) Bowen of the CSIR had proposed that the Bureau did not have the scientific background to take advantage of the scientific and technological developments during the war years. Certainly the task of developing adequate techniques for providing services for civil aviation, forecasts for the general public and warnings of tropical cyclones, floods, fire weather and other conditions likely to endanger life and property was one of major proportions. The creation of the post of Chief Scientific Officer was a logical outcome of the appointment of Warren as Director of Meteorology.
A committee composed of Professors Kerr Grant (Adelaide), A. D. Ross (Perth), and O. U. Vonwiller (Sydney), Dr F. W. G. White (CSIR Executive) and H. N. Warren was formed to examine the responses to advertisements (in Australia and overseas) inviting applications for the position of Chief Scientific Officer. I have a copy of the report of the committee, dated 17 February 1948, which found that none of the six overseas applicants (one of whom, Bill Swinbank, is discussed later) had qualifications and experience superior to applicants within the Bureau. Warren had obtained the opinions of directors of the organisations in which the overseas applicants were, or had been, employed and had interviewed these applicants while overseas.
People in Bright Sparcs - Bowen, Edward George (Taffy); Grant, Kerr; Swinbank, William Christopher Swinbank, William Christopher; Warren, Herbert Norman; White, Frederick William George
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© Online Edition Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre and Bureau of Meteorology 2001
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