Home | About Us | Contacts | Help | Feedback | SEARCH Global | Australia | NSW | Vic. | Qld | WA | SA | Tas. | ACT | NT | Ant. | Weather & Warnings | Hydrology | Climate | Numerical Prediction | About Services | Learn About Meteorology | Registered User Services |

Back to Index | Next Chapter

Annual Report 2000-01 - Letter of Transmittal

The Hon Dr Sharman Stone MP

Parliamentary Secretary with responsibility for the Bureau of Meteorology

Parliament House

CANBERRA ACT 2600

Dear Dr Stone

I am pleased to submit the Annual Report of the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology for the financial year ended 30 June 2001. It complements the Annual Report of the Department of the Environment and Heritage, which includes a summary of the outcome of the operation of the Bureau, along with essential information on those activities of the Bureau that flow from its status as part of the Department. This report deals with the activities of the Bureau in fulfilment of its statutory responsibilities under the Meteorology Act 1955.

The Centenary of Federation, on 1 January 2001, also marked one hundred years of Commonwealth responsibility for meteorology and provided a fitting occasion on which to take stock of a century of progress in meteorological science and service to the Australian community. The Bureau of Meteorology has a proud tradition of public service to all sectors of society and we were pleased to play our part in the celebration of the Centenary of the Australian Public Service and to renew our commitment to the scientific integrity, quality and utility of Australia's meteorological services for the twenty-first century.

Given the critical dependence of our national climate record and the quality of our day to day weather and climate services on the work of our pioneer and present day meteorological volunteers, it was also especially appropriate that we were able, on World Meteorological Day (23 March) 2001, and as part of the Australian celebration of the International Year of Volunteers, to acknowledge and honour the work of the tens of thousands of volunteer weather observers from whose dedicated efforts the Bureau has gained so much over the past century.

The Sydney 2000 Olympic Games provided the Bureau of Meteorology with the challenge, and the opportunity, of drawing on the most advanced meteorological science and technology in the world to provide up-to-the-minute, state-of-the-art weather information and advice to the Games organisers and participants, and to the broader Sydney community. While the time and resources put in by the Bureau, and by several of its international colleague agencies through the World Weather Research Programme of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), were substantial, the careful planning paid off, the services were of very high quality and there were no serious weather-related impacts on the success of the Games. The experience has provided the Bureau with an invaluable foundation for future improvement to routine public forecast and warning services for Australia's major cities.

I am pleased to be able to report, also, that most of the Bureau's routine operations and services performed to acceptable, and often very high, standards during the year despite the pressures on operations elsewhere caused by the Olympics and the wide range of other demands on Bureau staff in responding to the requirements of the new tax system, IT outsourcing, Accrual Budget implementation, an Output Pricing Review and the conduct of the major internal Strategic Assessment which you commissioned in November 2000. During the year, we have greatly enhanced the accessibility of Bureau services with community enthusiasm for weather radar imagery, in particular, on the Bureau Website making it one of the most frequently accessed government sites in Australia. On the other hand, the allocation of staff effort to such a wide range of initiatives has left the Bureau very thinly spread across the more strategic aspects of our operations which we see as critical to maintenance of scientific integrity and service quality in the longer term.

In this context, I wish to draw your attention to the Bureau's achievement, due in significant measure to the injection of additional ongoing funding in 1996-97 and continued through the 1999-2000 Budget, in maintaining a slow, but real, long term improvement trend in the performance of most of its forecast and warning services. Although it will never be possible for weather and climate forecasting to be accurate in every detail, and occasional serious forecast errors must always be expected, I consider that the maintenance of a generally improving trend in service quality, over the past decade, while still also meeting our cost reduction and efficiency targets, owes much to the integrity of the basic concept of operation of the Bureau which is the product of :

- successive governments' reaffirmation of the primarily public good, public interest nature of its charter;

- its clearly defined role in support of the full spectrum of national social, economic and environmental goals;

- effective integration of its monitoring, research and service functions;

- its close partnership arrangements with State and Local Government agencies;

- the very high priority given, over many decades, to international cooperation and collaboration with the National Meteorological Services of neighbouring countries;

- its very high standards of initial and ongoing professional and technical training;

- a long tradition of absolute priority to maintenance of service to its user communities;

- an evolutionary, approach to the implementation of scientific, technological and organisational change; and most importantly of all:

- the outstanding depth of experience, organisational memory, professional dedication and institutional loyalty of its staff.

In discharging, so far as I have been able, my responsibilities for administration of the Meteorology Act and management of the Bureau over the past year, I have been privileged to be able to rely on the professionalism, skills and commitment to public service of the staff of the Bureau. I am greatly indebted to them for their efforts, often far beyond the reasonable call of duty, which have enabled the Bureau to maintain the extraordinary range and volume of services which it has to all sectors of the community.

In looking to the future, initially to the centenary, on 1 January 2008, of the establishment of the Bureau as a Commonwealth agency, but also to the longer term, I am confident that the staff of the Bureau will maintain the professional commitment and expertise, the resilience and the vision to ensure that the Australian community will continue to be well served by its National Meteorological Service in the decades ahead.

Yours sincerely

JOHN W ZILLMAN

DIRECTOR OF METEOROLOGY

8 OCTOBER 2001

© Commonwealth of Australia 2000

This work is copyright. Apart from any use as premitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the Commonwealth available from AusInfo. Requests and enquiries should be directed to the Manager, Legislative Services, AusInfo, GPO Box 1920, Canberra ACT 2401.

ISSN 1037 3608

Back to Index | Next Chapter