Take the 1958 Bowen cyclone aftermath, when Fred and Allen Bath (now ADM) were interviewing the locals, who were somewhat upset. "They all wanted to fight the Bureau", Fred recalled. "The worst case was a big wharfie we met in the pub. Six foot plus, and busy grizzling about the Bureau's poor warning. I asked him how many hours' warning had been given, and he said "eight". Then I asked what he would have done if there had been eight days' warning. "I'd have ruddy well prayed that it wouldn't come", he grumbled.

Then there was the legendary Willis Island trip, when Fred was sent to the tiny island in the Coral Sea to settle some arguments among the staff. "The boat wasn't much good, and the navigator was worse, Fred said. "The chronometer was crook, compass variations were unknown, the sextant couldn't be read, etc. We had a sweep on when we'd reach the island. But we missed . . . by about eighty miles . . . turning around, we missed again, and were heading for New Guinea when we finally sighted the northernmost island in the group. By this time the alarm was out for us. We eventually made it, and settled the grumbles quickly over a few beers." His report on this is a classic.

Fred's favourite story concerned the wartime visit to Bougainville by his "boss", Len Dwyer, later Director: "We had to show Len the scene of operations on top of Barges Hill, about 3,000 ft. up. The climb almost finished him . . . then we gave him a spectacular ride along the razor-back ridges in a jeep that had been lugged up in pieces, and re-assembled. Having told him of the fanatical sword-waving Japanese lurking in the jungle, we took him for a suitably dangerous drive. That night we told him gravely that he couldn't use a mosquito net because it might hamper his movements if the tent lines were attacked.

"A lot of this was true, but in any case at the big conference which followed, he was rather easily persuaded to grant outstanding leave to the workers."

Bureau of Meteorology