Civil flying then came to Mildura. Harry was moved about to other places during his long stay at Mildura but he always had to be back in September and October for the frost season. He has acted as forecasting officer for gliding championships held at Waikerie and Renmark in South Australia and Benalla and Mildura in Victoria.

Since 1961 Harry has been associated with the HIBAL project and 501 big balloon launchings. RD Vic Keith Hannay comments: "In this particularly, Harry has done a tremendous job, one of the most onerous in forecasting and liaison.

"In all those launchings only one balloon payload has not been recovered, and this was due to the failure of non-meteorological equipment."

He has reason to be proud of his 30 years with the Bureau, particularly of his association with some of the supposedly tough bosses of former years. Harry was a hard worker himself. In the words of retired officer Jack Nance: "If Harry Storer is less than an hour early for the job, then I begin to think he is late".

Harry is now looking forward to retirement and a greater concentration on the garden and bowls.

Harry has a fund of memories of wax-time services and of things before that. Like other old met. Sydneysiders, he remembers D. J. Mares demonstrating some of his boxing skill (as a former amateur boxer) in the Divisional Meteorologist's office in Sydney.

One of his best stories came from the recent gliding championships at Benalla. A hydrogen cylinder for balloon flights was sent ahead to the aerodrome, but failed to turn up. Harry went looking . . . and found it behind the temporary bar, presumably about to be connected to a keg. As somebody said, that beer would have had plenty of hops.

Bureau of Meteorology