BAMOS
Jun 2019
The flooding of Victoria Square, Adelaide in 1925. Source: State Library of South Australia B 60616
Mac Benoy, a web developer on the Floods Project was inspired
by the early synoptic maps accessed for the flood‐related book
and started a project to image the 26,000 pages of the Charles
Todd Weather Folios. The team involved has subsequently
digitised over half a million weather observations mainly
covering southern South Australia between 1840 and 1905.
The project team has continued imaging the Bureau’s SA
Regional Office weather folios to 1957 and many of the mid–
late 19th Century meteorological records of SA lighthouses.
The full collection of images, available online, includes what is
believed to be the world’s second longest continuous collection
of large‐scale daily and sub-daily synoptic charts, in this case
covering Australia and contiguous regions. The project is now
part of the Australian Chapter of the UK Met Office-sponsored
ACRE global data rescue project. It has also been footnoted in
the Bureau’s current strategic plan as a contributor to ensuring
there is depth, breadth and quality to its external partnerships
and collaborations. (www.met-acre.net/MERIT)
Over a period of 18 years, these three self-managing projects
are a hallmark for how the expertise of volunteers can
contribute value to a profession at low to no cost. Volunteering
is considered to be the third largest sector of the national
economy and it contains a vast storehouse of skills, dedication
and purpose. Harnessing this energy to support meteorological
research has returned dividends.
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