The year 2003-04 was one of significant change with the Bureau having its first new director in twenty-five years as well as preparing for a move of headquarters from its present tenancy in the Melbourne CBD to accommodation at 700 Collins St in the Melbourne Docklands precinct.

The Bureau successfully met the challenges of providing general weather and climate forecasts for the community and specifically for a number of significant events, including, the on-going drought in southeast Australia, significant thunderstorm events in Melbourne and Sydney and a number of tropical cyclones.

Some other notable achievements included:

• the Bureau taking responsibility for the National Tidal Centre;
• the installation of several new radar facilities as part of the Radar Network and Doppler Services Upgrade Project;
• completion of the new High Performance Computing and Communications Centre;
• involvement in a major new international cooperative venture on Earth Observations;
• involvement in one new and several prospective Cooperative Research Centres;
• undertaking an AusAID funded capacity building exercise in Pacific Island Countries to enable them to create their own seasonal forecasting capabilities;
• involvement in a dispersion modelling exercise to investigate the ramifications of a potential terrorist attack;
• collaboration on the new Australian Water Data Infrastructure Project to enable integrated access to a range of water related data and information; and
• the continued development of the new Oceanographic Services program.

The Bureau's performance exceeded many of the performance targets identified in the 2003-04 Portfolio Budget Statements. These targets will need to be revised in future to stretch the Bureau's performance and promote continuous improvement.