Adrian Porter Pulls No Punches (continued)

My tenuous link with Tasmania, unwittingly, was about to start through the path I pursued. I applied for a posting to the Antarctic continent in 1975, although in those days all training and departures for Antarctica were controlled from Melbourne. At the same time I was also successful in obtaining a position in the Installation Section of the Head Office Observations and Engineering Branch.

The appointment to Casey for a year full of work and personal experiences was to prove a big learning step in my career. I think that those who follow the same career path today will have equally personal experiences. None could match the WF2 radar fibreglass dome that was blown away in a blizzard which averaged 220 km/hr for eight hours and peaked at 255 km/hr. I had completed the night shift and was fast asleep when I was awakened by excited Observers all wanting to be the first to me tell the news. Needless to say I did not believe them and, thinking it a joke, told them where to go. The subsequent blizzards that followed caused many hours of work repeatedly removing the radar gearbox and then lying on the frozen surround concrete and scooping the compacted snow out of the ring gear with a tablespoon. The reason for the build up of snow was that the so called radar snow guard was so in name only. After some time the problem was overcome by the rigging of a ground shield to drop the velocity of the snow hitting the radar snow guard. Nevertheless, the radar worked remarkably well in the exposed environs.

Bureau of Meteorology