A Stout With a Dash! [Reg Stout]

Tales of Reg's deeds came from a long list of speakers at his farewell—A/ADF Ralph de la Lande, SRES Tony Savory, SM Don Modcock, EXG Kevin Walshe, and a former STOT (now retired) Bill Brann. Other former Bureau stalwarts at the farewell were John Lilywhite, Freddie Leak and Tom Hall. Some typical comments were:

Tony Savory: "I was a student under Reg—advice was given even when it wasn't sought, but I needed it even though I didn't know I needed it. In the much more difficult times of recent years he was a tower of strength and an inspiration".

Bill Brann: "Right from the start Reg was a goer. After a cyclone in Townsville he got together a team and in eight weeks put in three stations in the time that previous teams had taken to put in one station. At Maralinga, when met observations were not getting any priority, Reg cornered Sir William Penny and in very short time the met facilities were in and working".

Ralph de la Lande: "Reg always demonstrated a great ability to short circuit the system. He was made of the stuff that builds empires—not personal ones—but the Bureau empire. The installation of 160 major facilities is testimony to Reg's achievements".

A telex from DIR John Zillman (absent interstate) expressed best wishes and thanked Reg for his unique contribution to the development of the Bureau, which would never be the same without him. Telexes were also received from Bureau offices in Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville, and Sydney. A former colleague in the Facilities Branch, Johnny Firth, sent a telegram that read: "Without you the place is going to fall apart—you're the nut that holds it all together".

Reg was presented with a handsome item of furniture that combined a chiming clock, thermometer, humidity meter, and an aneroid barometer.

Career Details

The following account of Reg's career, under the heading "Last of the old breed, or a 'Stout' with a dash who had it all bottled up", was contributed from the Engineering Services Sub-Section:

The retirement of Reg Stout after 35 years plus 4 years war service has come at last. In his younger days Reg was a prominent racing (push bike) cyclist. He and his brothers Ron, Eddie and Morrie held many track and road titles in Australia and had the bookmakers guessing.

These days Reg and his wife Lorna have their time taken up with ballroom dancing and hope to keep up this interest in their retirement on the Queensland Gold Coast.

Years ago Reg and Lorna had a mixed farm in the Warrandyte (Vic.) district, and in between installation and maintenance visits to field stations around Australia, Reg kept Head Office supplied with milk, cream, eggs and all types of vegetables, plus chicked dressed for the table. In his spare time he had a hairdressing saloon in the balloon filling station on the roof of No 2 Drummond Street, and everyone including the Director made appointments over the lunch break.

Bureau of Meteorology