Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology (1955 - )

Summary

The Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology is the National Meteorological Service for Australia. Its role is to observe and understand Australian weather and climate and provide meteorological, hydrological and oceanographic services in support of Australia's national needs and international obligations.

Details

Before June 1955 meteorological functions were carried out by the Meteorological Branch/Bureau of the Commonwealth Department of the Interior. The Meteorology Act 1955 became operative on 20 June 1955. The Act established the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology and created the office of Director of Meteorology. From 1973 the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology was also referred to as the 'Bureau of Meteorology' in Commonwealth and Australian Government Directories.

Related entries

Timeline

 1907 - 1955 Meteorological Branch/Bureau
       1955 - Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology

Published resources

Books

• Australia. Bureau of Meteorology, A Century of Science and Service: the Australian Bureau of Meteorology 1908-2008 (Melbourne: Bureau of Meteorology, 2008), 15 pp. Details
• Bureau of Meteorology, Australia's Role in International Meteorology - IMO-WMO Centenary 1973-1973 (Melbourne: Bureau of Meteorology, 1973). Details
• Bureau of Meteorology, The Bureau of Meteorology 1908-1983 (Canberra: AGPS, 1983), 11 pp. Details
• Cornish, A.; Stout, R.; Swan, K.; Glendinning, C., Memories of the Bureau of Meteorology 1929-1946: History of Major Meteorological Installations in Australia From 1945-1981: Four Years in the RAAF Meteorological Service: the Bureau of Meteorology in Papua and New Guinea in the 1950s, Metarch Papers No. 8 (Bureau of Meteorology, 1996). Details
• Day, David, Weather watchers: 100 years of the Bureau of Meteorology (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 2007), 530 pp. Details
• Gardner, J., Stormy Weather: a History of Research in the Bureau of Meteorology, Metarch Papers No. 11 (Bureau of Meteorology, 1997). Details
• Gibbs, W. J., A mini-history of meteorology in Australia (Melbourne: Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, 1996). Details
• Gibbs, W. J., A Very Special Family: Memories of the Bureau of Meteorology 1946 to 1962, Metarch Papers No. 13 (Bureau of Meteorology, 1999). Details
• Hannay, K., Some Recollections of Service in the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology and RAAF Meteorological Service: Mascot and Rose Bay (1938 to 1940): Sojourn in the Far East (1942), Metarch Papers No. 6 (Bureau of Meteorology, 1994). Details
• Lillywhite, J., My Early Years in the Bureau of Meteorology: the Formation of the Frosterley Club, Metarch Papers No. 4 (Bureau of Meteorology, 1992). Details
• Zillman, John W., A Hundred Years of Science and Service (Melbourne: Bureau of Meteorology, 2001), 20 pp, http://www.bom.gov.au/info/100_years.pdf. Details

Book Sections

• Gibbs, W. J., 'A mini-history of meteorology in Australia' in Windows on Meteorology: Australian Perspective, Webb, Eric K., ed. (Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing, 1997), pp. 81-104. Details

Journal Articles

• 'Dr (W.J.) Bill Gibbs, Director, Bureau of Meteorology, 1962-1978', Bulletin of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, 11 (4) (1998), 78-82. Details
• Bond, H. G., 'A Tradition of Meteorology', Weather News, 127 (February 1967) (1967), 1. Details
• Cameron, A. M., 'Australian Meteorology', Sydney University Magazine, 1 (1878). Details
• Gentilli, J., 'A History of Meteorological and Climatological Studies in Australia', University Studies in History, 5 (1967), 54-88. Details
• Gibbs, W. J., 'A Perspective of Australian Meteorology - 1939-1978', Australian Meteorological Magazine, 30 (1982), 3-17. Details
• Gibbs, W. J., 'Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology', World Meteorological Organization Bulletin, 32 (1983), 309-313. Details
• Morgan, Helen, 'Bill Gibbs and the Origins of Australian Meteorology', Australasian Science, 22 (6) (2001), 46. Details
• Todd, C., 'A Review of Meteorological Work in Australia', Report of the fifth meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 5 (1894), 246-270, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15362434. Details

Resources

• Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/. Details
• Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-593013. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Primary description of agency CA 1835; Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology, Registration of entity: 30 September 1987', in RecordSearch, National Archives of Australia, 2000, https://RecordSearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/AutoSearch.asp?Number=CA%201835. Details
• Bureau of Meteorology, 'A Brief History of the Bureau of Meteorology', 2001, http://www.bom.gov.au/inside/eiab/Bureauhistory.shtml. Details
• Cornish, A.; Stout, R.; Swan, K.; Glendinning, C., 'Memories of the Bureau of Meteorology 1929-1946: History of Major Meteorological Installations in Australia From 1945-1981: Four Years in the RAAF Meteorological Service: the Bureau of Meteorology in Papua and New Guinea in the 1950s', in Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/0490.html. Details
• Gardner, J., 'Stormy Weather: a History of Research in the Bureau of Meteorology', in Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/0735.html. Details
• Gibbs, W. J., 'A Very Special Family: Memories of the Bureau of Meteorology 1946 to 1962', in Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/0830.html. Details
• Hannay, K., 'Some Recollections of Service in the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology and RAAF Meteorological Service: Mascot and Rose Bay (1938 to 1940): Sojourn in the Far East (1942)', in Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/0339.html. Details
• Lillywhite, J., 'My Early Years in the Bureau of Meteorology: the Formation of the Frosterley Club', in Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/0165.html. Details

Reviews

• Day, David, The weather watchers: 100 years of the Bureau of Meteorology (2007)
  Christie, Maureen, Historical Records of Australian Science, 19 (1), (2008), 108-9, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR08003. Details
• Day, David, The weather watchers (2007)
  Gell, Rob, 'The "inexact science" of Weather Forecasting - an Australian history', The University of Melbourne Voice, 3 (1), (2008), 14. Details

See also

• Antarctic Meteorology. Proceedings of the Symposium Held in Melbourne, February, 1959 (Melbourne: Pergamon Press, 1959). Details
• Science and the making of Victoria, with Royal Society of Victoria, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/smv/index_c.html. Details
• Gibbs, W. J., 'Meteorology at Heard and Macquarie Islands', The Meteorological magazine, 79 (1950), 168-70. Details
• Gibbs, W. J., The Origins of Australian Meteorology, Metarch Papers No. 12 (Bureau of Meteorology, 1998). Details
• Gibbs, W. J., 'The Origins of Australian Meteorology', in Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/0805.html. Details
• Home, R. W.; and Livingston, K. T., 'Science and Technology in the Story of Australian Federation: the Case of Meteorology, 1876-1908', Historical Records of Australian Science, 10 (2) (1994), 109-127. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9941020109. Details
• Colonial Observatories and Observations: Meteorology and Geophysics: Proceedings of a Conference held at St. Mary's College, University of Durham, 8-10 April, 1994 edited by Kenworthy, Joan M.; and Walker, J. Malcolm (Durham: Department of Geography, University of Durham in collaboration with Royal Meteorological Society, 1997). Details
• Marvin, U. B., 'Historic Advances in Meteoritics in Australia and Antarctica', in Useful and Curious Geological Enquiries Beyond the World: Pacific-Asia Historical Themes: The 19th International INHIGEO Symposium, Sydney, Australia, 4-8 July, 1994 edited by D. F. Branagan and G. H. McNally (Sydney: International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences, 1994), pp. 52-58.. Details
• Moloney, T., 'Agrometeorology's Leading Lady', Weather News, 304 (August 1993) (1993), 20-21. Details
• Nicholls, Neville, 'Developments in climatology in Australia: 1946 - 1996', Australian Meteorological Magazine, 46 (1997), 127-35. Details
• Priestley, C. H. B., 'Reminiscences of 30 years of meteorological research in Australia', Australian Meteorological Magazine, 30 (1982), 19-30. Details
• Webb, Eric K. ed., Windows on Meteorology: Australian Perspective (Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing, 1997), 342 pp. Details
• Zou, Jingmeng, 'Australia-China Cooperation in Meteorology', Australian Physicist, 26 (10) (1989), 235-240. Details