Background

Since 1997, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (hereafter the "Bureau") has been conducting regular telephone surveys of the Australian public to assess the Bureau's performance in meeting people's weather information requirements. The survey results assist the Bureau in understanding the weather information needs of the general public, and assist in planning for future products and services.

The Bureau is interested in the variety of weather dependent decisions people make, the range of weather information used to assist in making these decisions and how the information is accessed. The Bureau is also interested in the public's perception of the accuracy of weather information, whether the information is available in sufficient time to allow it to be used in an optimal way and whether it meets the requirements of users.

In February 2005, the Bureau conducted an online public user survey to complement the telephone surveys. This survey used the same set of questions that telephone survey respondents are asked, with some additional demographic questions to identify the respondent's location, sex and age. Click here to see the survey questions.

In total, 2675 people submitted a response to the online survey. See the figures below for the number of respondents in each state.

Online Survey Results

New South Wales (886)
Victoria (729)
Queensland (532)
Western Australia (184)
South Australia (140)
Tasmania (64)
Australian Capital Territory (67)
Northern Territory (73)