CSIRO (continued)

Bill Priestley's section of CSIR was established in Aspendale in 1947 with Bill Swinbank, Len Deacon and Andrjez Berson on his staff, all former colleagues from the UK Meteorological Office and all, like Bill, first rate scientists with significant research accomplishments.

They obviously suffered from a culture shock as the Australian culture had vastly different attitudes from those prevailing in England. The scientific meteorological aura of the Royal Society and the Royal Meteorological Society was not evident in Australia.

The Bureau's urgent activities in obtaining the manpower and materials to meet requirements for meteorological services were in sharp contrast with the leisurely long-range objectives of CSIR's Section of Meteorological Physics.

Nevertheless, as described in earlier paragraphs there was communication between the Research Section of the Bureau and Bill Priestley and other staff of the CSIR at Aspendale. They were working on turbulence near the ground and had designed a data-gathering instrument array on a large field at Edithvale. Although this properly belonged to the category of basic research there were promises of applications in the field of agrometeorology if heat and moisture exchanges between the ground and the atmosphere could be better understood. We were invited to visit Bill Priestley at Aspendale and readily responded to the invitation. He and his staff were willing participants in the monthly colloquia and we soon became accustomed to the incisive and blunt comments of Bill Swinbank when he participated in the ensuing discussions.

When Sir David Rivett retired in May 1949 his place as Chairman of the CSIRO was taken by lan Clunies Ross. Clunies Ross was born in Bathurst, NSW, on 22 February 1899. Educated at Newington College, Sydney, he graduated B.VSc. from the University of Sydney in 1921. Awarded the Walter and Eliza Hall Research Fellowship in 1922 he was subsequently appointed parasitologist with CSIR in 1926. His field of work was animal health, particularly the health of sheep. He was concerned with the application of scientific knowledge rather than with basic research. In 1928 he gained D.VSc. for his work on hydatid in 1928 and was appointed a full time member of the CSIR Executive Committee in January 1946. Fred White was a member of the Executive of CSIR and CSIRO and was the main point of contact with Warren in the post-war years.

Bureau of Meteorology