Article
BAMOS August 2025
25
Peter led a keen team that produced a range of climate summary products for the WMO-designated Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre( RSMC) in Darwin. These included the Weekly Tropical Climate Note, which provided a 15-day outlook for the Australian tropics, the monthly Darwin Tropical Diagnostic Statement, which summarised large-scale weather systems( including tropical cyclones, the Australian / Asian monsoon and climate drivers), and the bi-annual Tropical Climate Summary in the Australian Meteorological Magazine.
Peter was involved in setting up the AMOS Darwin Centre in 1999 and held various positions in the committee until around 2009. He commented that the Bureau was a great place to work due to the strong " esprit de corps " and maintained contact with Bureau colleagues after retirement. Peter passed away on 19 April 2025 after a period of ill health. many meteorological publications, he put together a Brief History of Top Half Folk Festivals, 1971-2012.
Much of this material was extracted from a 2008 interview with Peter and Helen Bate as part of the National Library of Australia Oral History Collection.
Personal Reflections from former colleagues in the Bureau ' s NT Climate Section
Peter was really strong at pushing tropical climate understandings and at educating the NT public( and " Down South ") on using these for intraseasonal forecasting. He was also a great guy- laid back, passionate about his folk music, and a really warm team leader.
Andrew Tupper
Pete was a lovely, principled bloke, with a strong sense of service and fairness and a keen eye for detail. He was a strong advocate and protector of the climate record of the Territory, and all can have confidence in the integrity of the climate data and summaries produced while Pete was involved, both technically and grammatically.
Sam Cleland
I remember Peter for his excellent eye for detail and his commitment to maintaining the highest standards in his work. I was proud to work with an excellent meteorologist. He has supported all his subordinate staff and encouraged them in their professional pursuits.
Shaik Hakeem
Peter was the quintessential professional, and I prospered as a person working under him. From a personal perspective, I was blessed by his basic decency and his undoubted integrity.
I was also inspired by his sheer dedication and utter reliability. We didn ' t see eye to eye on all things, especially with respect to politics and religion, but it is a measure of his maturity of character that such never affected our working or personal relationship. He will be missed.
Rob Porteous
Peter in front of the climate ' chart wall ' and holding a radiosonde radar target with a shredded balloon. Credit: Bureau of Meteorology
Peter ' s other passion in life was folk music. He was influenced at an early age by his mother, who played piano, and his father, who was a choir singer. Peter learnt to play the recorder, mouth organ, guitar and banjo, and developed a talent for harmony singing. His interests progressed from traditional jazz to American and Australian ballads during the 1960s folk revival, and he performed in many touring festival bands in northern Australia. He was involved with the Central Australian Folk Society in Alice Springs, the Top End Folk Club in Darwin and the Top End Folk Federation, which has organised the annual Top Half Folk Festival for the past 53 years. In addition to Peter ' s