The weather prophets
the charleville rainmaker Cloudy skies at last! On 26 September 1902, the drought-wearied residents of Charleville looked to the heavens with new hope. They knew, of course, that clouds offered no...
View ArticleA climate for a nation
forecast: 1 January 1901 The day had been hot, the air hung ‘heavy and dead’; but as evening approached, ‘ominous-looking clouds’ swept over the city, and a thundery change seemed imminent. On this,...
View ArticleWragge
On 26 September 1902, exactly 100 years ago today, the people of Charleville tried to make rain. Stationed around the town were six Stiger Vortex guns, their long, funnel-shaped barrels aimed skywards....
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Change in the Weather
A Change in the Weather We live between weather and climate – between the daily experience of nature and our attempts to discern the patterns and regularities that define an Australian climate. In this...
View ArticleHuman elements
‘I say emphatically that the climate has changed’, Henry Hodgson told the Argus in 1928. The experience of seventy-eight years brooked no denial, summers were milder, and thunderstorms were fewer. ‘It...
View ArticleCivilisation versus the giant, winged lizards
‘Modern man is a forest butcher’, warned the pioneering science journalist Hugh McKay in 1923. ‘He is also an oil-spendthrift and a coal waster’, McKay continued, ‘recklessly spending his capital of...
View ArticleLooking at the sun
From Wallal, in Australia’s far north-west, to Goondiwindi, near the New South Wales-Queensland border, local and international scientists watched the sun and waited. A total solar eclipse was due on...
View ArticleInigo Jones: The Weather Prophet
I’m currently working on a html version of this with added links and content, but in the meantime… Prologue Canberra was in the grip of a heatwave — the longest in its recorded history. After two weeks...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Some exhibition magic with Zotero and Omeka
Letter from CKR Kilby (‘Parkwood’, Hall FCT) One of my most exciting archival discoveries was a cache of letters written by farmers from across NSW in 1938. Seeking to marshal support for the...
View Article