A Century of Storms, Fire, Flood and Drought in New South Wales, Bureau Of

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology celebrated its centenary as a Commonwealth Government Agency in 2008. It was established by the Meteorology Act 1906 and commenced operation as a national organisation on 1 January 1908 through the consoli- dation of the separate Colonial/State Meteorological Services. The Bureau is an integrated scientific monitoring, research and service organisation responsible for observing, understanding and predicting the behaviour of Australia’s weather and climate and for providing a wide range of meteorological, hydrological and oceanographic information, forecasting and warning services. The century-long history of the Bureau and of Australian meteorology is the history of the nation – from the Federation Drought to the great floods of 1955, the Black Friday and Ash Wednesday bushfires, the 1974 devastation of Darwin by cyclone Tracy and Australia’s costliest natural disaster, the Sydney hailstorm of April 1999. It is a story of round-the-clock data collection by tens of thousands of dedicated volunteers in far-flung observing sites, of the acclaimed weather support of the RAAF Meteorological Service for southwest Pacific operations through World War II and of the vital role of the post-war civilian Bureau in the remarkable safety record of Australian civil aviation. And it is a story of outstanding scientific and technological innovation and international leadership in one of the most inherently international of all fields of science and human endeavour. Although headquartered in Melbourne, the Bureau has epitomised the successful working of the Commonwealth with a strong operational presence in every State capital and a strong sense of identity with both its State and its national functions and responsibilities. The Bureau has played an especially active role in support of agriculture, the environment, water resource management and natural disaster mitigation. Front cover image: Storm approaching Treachery Beach, south of Seal Rocks, New South Wales. Photograph courtesy of [email protected] Stormy weather A century of storms, fire, flood and drought in New South Wales Aboriginal storytellers had passed spotter volunteers in New South weather lore down some 1600 gen- Wales. erations before the First Fleet came This booklet commemorates the to Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788. Bureau’s century of service to the The European newcomers applied community and also highlights their science and technology to significant New South Wales weather measure and analyse the weather and climate events. Here are snap- and climate on a continent where shots of particularly damaging seasons were reversed and the Southerly Busters, East Coast Lows dramatic variability of the climate and tropical cyclones; the creeping was far beyond their experience. Speared kangaroo: Aboriginal rock catastrophe of drought; the brief We have a few general weather carving, Sydney violence of a tornado; massive fires; observations from the first day of the Hunter floods of 1955, which European settlement. For instance, resulted in the Bureau being given First Lt William Bradley of the Sirius laboured for decades with modest flood forecasting responsibilities; noted ‘at day light, Fine weather with resources to improve scientific and the devastating Sydney a moderate breeze at SE’. But not understanding of the atmosphere, hailstorm of 1999. until Lt William Dawes built his small and to monitor it adequately. Their We should look back to remind us observatory where a south pylon of prospects of success increased why, and how, we must prepare the Sydney Harbour Bridge now immeasurably from the 1960s with communities for weather extremes stands did we have detailed ever-more-productive weather like flooding, fire and storm; we must observations. His records from 14 computers, weather satellites and also look forward to prepare for even September 1788 to 6 December 1791 radars, and more recently the creation greater extremes projected under launched the collection of weather of the New South Wales network of climate change. This may prove to be and climate data critical to helping more than 100 automatic weather as big an adaptation challenge to our the newcomers survive, and eventually stations. community as that faced by Governor thrive, in what they finally accepted In this welter of automation, it’s Phillip confronting, in the words of an as a notoriously variable climate. heartening to find that non-urgent old English ballad, ‘the world turned Decades later records revealed rainfall and storm information still upside down’. that the most diverse environments finds its way to the Bureau on and climates on the continent, from handwritten forms – and is, ironically, tropical to temperate, from arid to perhaps more valuable than ever to alpine, are found in New South Wales. scientists monitoring climate Barry Hanstrum From the Bureau’s birth in 1908 change. All of us indirectly profit Regional Director for as the national successor to State from the tireless efforts of around New South Wales weather services, meteorologists 1500 rainfall and 1500 storm Australian Bureau of Meteorology A century of storms, fires, flood and drought in New South Wales Before the Bureau Lt William Dawes of the Royal Marines Sydney metropolitan area, his community earned a place in Australia’s scientific fame rests primarily with his sought-after pantheon with his astronomical measure- romantic paintings of the harbour, its ments and observations of the wind, important homes and prominent buildings— weather, temperature and barometric a valuable record of early Sydney. pressure five or six times daily from 1788 William Jevons, an English polymath, to 1791, when he returned to England. who took readings near Sydney from For the next 70 years, weather 1855 to 1858, published the first thorough observations were fragmentary, and of study of Australian climate in 1859. little value to today’s climatologists. Some Lt William Dawes records were kept at Government House Sydney Observatory but unfortunately most of these have been The building of the Astronomical lost or destroyed. Measurements were Observatory in 1858 on a slight headland mostly taken by interested individuals at overlooking Miller's Point— with Sydney different sites for only a few years, and Harbour (Port Jackson) to the north, come largely from private journals and Darling Harbour to the west and expedition reports. Some valuable southwest, and Circular Quay (Sydney contributors were: Cove) to the east—brought the first full- Sir Thomas Brisbane, Governor scale official meteorological observations between 1821 and 1825, set up a private at the beginning of 1859, under the observatory in Parramatta where regular direction of the newly appointed observations were taken for some years. Astronomer for New South Wales, Reverend William Braithwaite Clarke, Reverend William Scott. The only other another keen amateur who was primarily station within the region to submit reports, a geologist, left numerous weather Parramatta, was soon joined by Windsor, records, articles and theories about Liverpool and Botany. The observations weather phenomena. made daily at 9 am, 3 pm, and 9 pm were George Peacock, a Yorkshire solicitor fairly comprehensive, even at this early transported to Australia in 1837 for stage: pressure, wind, cloudiness, dry forgery, was trained as a weather and wet-bulb temperatures, maximum observer at the Parramatta Observatory. and minimum temperatures both in the At South Head he compiled New South shade and in the sun, humidity, vapour Wales’ longest early record, from 1840 to pressure and rainfall. At Observatory Hill, about 1855. While climatologists regard ground minimum temperatures, his measurement of 20.41 inches of rain evaporation and ozone measurements (518 mm) on 16 October 1844 as the were also made and later, soil highest recorded 24-hour total in the temperature and adjacent harbour water Before of the Bureau 3 Sydney Observatory staff by instrument enclosure, 1887. Henry Hunt, chosen as the first Director of Meteorology in 1907, is third from left. temperature readings were added. (The of Meteorology’s drive towards latter four elements are no longer standardisation and consistent weather measured there.) Instruments were first data. Henry Chamberlain Russell followed kept in a Glaisher stand (similar to that Smalley as Government Astronomer from used at Greenwich, UK) on the south side August 1870 and systematically expanded of the Observatory. George Smalley, who the service and the reporting network until succeeded Reverend Scott as Government November 1903. In 1877 he began Astronomer after 1862, designed a publication of a daily weather map in the replacement shed 3.4 m square, with Sydney Morning Herald. It showed latticed sides and a louvred conical roof observations from 77 locations in New rising to 4 m. From 1910, the Stevenson South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, along screen became the national standard the overland telegraph route from Adelaide for instrument screens in the Bureau to Darwin, and New Zealand. A century of storms, fires, flood and drought in New South Wales Birth of the Bureau In 1903, Henry Hunt was appointed New immediately opposite the Bureau. Many South Wales State Meteorologist; in 1907 he nearby houses were demolished in 1932 was chosen as the first Commonwealth to make way for the Harbour Bridge Meteorologist, based at the Bureau’s Mel- approaches, both elevated and open cut, bourne headquarters. Observations contin- which now surround the old Bureau ued in the Observatory grounds for a while building and instrument enclosure. The but as the instrument shed fell into disrepair, mushrooming of high-rise office blocks to from about 1910 a duplicate set of instru- the east and south also significantly ments was set up nearby in a large Steven- changed the exposure of the site. Forecast- son Screen. In 1917 this screen was moved ers left Observatory Hill in 1963 to work 135 m downhill to where a new Weather from the central city. While the many ‘dis- Bureau building was to be built. Observa- continuities’ meant the Observatory site just tions have been taken there ever since.

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