Climate and Statistics (continued)

Des Halsted left the Bureau for promotion to a more senior position of statistical officer with the Department of Air in Melbourne and after further promotion to chief statistical officer decided to accept a position with the Hooker Company in Sydney in 1959 when the Department of Air HQ moved to Canberra. His ability was recognised by the Hooker Company and he became Corporation General Manager, a Director in 1970 and Deputy Chairman in 1985. Hookers, a large, very diverse and successful public company involved in all aspects of real estate was at one stage Australia's largest pastoral company with 200 000 head of cattle, 100 000 sheep and 45 000 acres of wheat. Now retired from these and other senior positions Des spends his time with golf and bowls.

The progress achieved in the Climate and Statistical Sections of the Bureau's Central Office in the years 1946 to 1950 was remarkable. Of particular significance was the efficient planning and installation of the Hollerith system, which was later to facilitate the transfer of punch-card data to an electronic computer data base. The scope and flexibility of that data base owes much to colonial meteorologists such as Russell, Todd and Wragge and those who maintained and expanded the data base after the Bureau came into being.

As illustrated by the contribution of the former cadet meteorologist, Des Halsted, one of Warren's notable achievements which had a lasting impact on the Bureau's development was his sponsorship of the recruitment of cadet meteorologists in the Bureau, an initiative followed by succeeding Directors of Meteorology. This produced a crop of brilliant young meteorologists, many of whom still occupy senior positions in the Bureau, where they have contributed significantly to the Bureau's status as an scientific institution making a major contribution to the safety and welfare of the general community.

Bureau of Meteorology