Adrian Porter Pulls No Punches (continued)

During this time some poor operational decisions were made, basically, I believe, because there was not a full time Antarctic Region. Antarctic Division management would pick our management off one at a time until they got the decision that was favourable for them and not necessarily in the Bureau's long term operational interests. The location of the building was one such example of this and the later blunder of not following through with the installation of WF100 radars as a replacement of the aging WF2 radars was another. We are still paying for the latter today, in the receipt of poor data, some eight years after the decision was made, and the pay back from installation of the WF100 radar would have more than offset its establishment costs within this period. However, it was an exciting time to have a relatively free hand in the conceptual design of Antarctic meteorological offices.

My 'Antarctic connection' was only an undercurrent during my 12 year stay in the Installation Section where, interestingly, a quick work history assessment shows that my involvement was divided equally between Head Office and the Regions. My experience provided me with a good hindsight into the strengths and weaknesses of both and I was conscious, in particular, of the effect of patronising and patriarchal global Head Office decisions on the practical, grass roots approach of the Regions which left Regional staff feeling inferior.

Installation Section proved to be an Australian adventure for me; I worked in all States and Territories. My supervisors, I believe, lacked personal management skills, which is understandable for technical people, and the time I spent in this Section was, for me, work by conflict. This is not to say that work output was low or ineffective; the outcome was more important than how we got there. I had more respect for one than the other and even less for the Bureau's engineering management at the time. I guess that this could be the lot of frustrated keen 'techs', on their way up to who knows where, who can see no logic in office politics.

Time away from 150 Lonsdale Street was just reward for hours agonising over the colour of the wall paper to be installed at the Gove meteorological office; well that's what it got down to sometimes. The satisfaction of planning and seeing the completion of a project was also a just reward. Travelling to remote parts of Australia and mixing with other technical people was a great experience during that time. We were treated very well by RMOs and regional 'techs'.

Bureau of Meteorology