Australia Yearbook - 2001

26 Year Book Australia 2001
Australia’s meteorological pioneers
William Dawes arrived in Australia with the First Fleet as a
Lieutenant in the Royal Marines, having served in the American
War of Independence, and subsequently pursued studies in
engineering and surveying. Equipped with meteorological and
astronomical books and instruments provided by the Royal
Astronomer, he immediately began construction of an
observatory at what is now known as Dawes Point, near the
southern pylon of the Harbour Bridge. Dawes’ meteorological
journal provides a detailed chronology of the early weather of the
colony from September 1788 until his departure for England in
December 1791.
Thomas Brisbane arrived in Sydney as Governor of NSW in
1821 and, building on his scientific background (he was a
graduate of the University of Edinburgh) and a deep interest in
meteorology and navigation, acquired during his many sea
voyages, he immediately established a meteorological and
astronomical observatory at his own expense at Parramatta. He
maintained detailed observations at Parramatta from 1822 until
he left the Colony in 1824. While in Sydney, he founded the
Philosophical Society of Australia for the presentation of scientific
papers in meteorology and other fields.
Charles Todd became Superintendent of Telegraphs and
Government Astronomer and Meteorologist in South Australia in
1855 at the age of 30. By 1858 he had completed telegraph links to
Victoria and NSW and, by 1872, the overland telegraph to
Darwin. As Superintendent of Telegraphs, he made it a duty of all
his telegraph operators to make and transmit meteorological
observations and he had soon established extensive observing
networks throughout South Australia and the Northern Territory,
and into Western Australia. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
of London in 1869, he played a leading role in the scientific life of
South Australia, even after his formal retirement, until his death
in 1909.
Georg von Neumeyer a Bavarian Ship’s Officer who had
obtained his doctorate at Munich in 1849, first arrived in
Melbourne in 1852. Convinced of the importance of meteorology,
he returned to Europe in 1854 and obtained the instruments
necessary to establish an observatory in Melbourne. Initially
working as a private citizen, he established a number of
observing stations throughout Victoria, mainly at lighthouses. In
1859, he was appointed as Government Astronomer. He gradually
built up the observatory recruiting, inter alia, W. J. Wills who was
subsequently to perish in the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition.
Neumeyer played a leading role in the early scientific life of
Melbourne before returning again to Europe in 1863.