the human elements

I'm part of a team working on a project entitled 'The human elements: a cultural history of Australian weather'. The project involves the ANU, the Bureau of Meteorology and the National Museum of Australia. For more information, see the Human Elements website.

My part of the project is focused on the history of seasonal forecasting in Australia, or more generally, how we reconcile our desire for certainty against one of the most variable climates on earth. At the moment I'm researching the controversial career of Australia's most well-known weather prophet, Inigo Jones.

• 'Inigo Jones: the weather prophet', public lecture at the National Archives of Australia, Canberra, 8 June 2005.
  [READ AT NAA]

I've also been thinking about the way historians can respond to the threat of global warming, see for example:

• 'Civilisation versus the Giant, Winged Lizards -- Changing Climates, Changing Minds', Altitude, no. 7, 2006.
  [READ AT ALTITUDE]

federation and meteorology

The Federation and Meteorology site has been developed by Austehc in cooperation with the Bureau of Meteorology and includes full-text versions of a number of articles relating to the history of meteorology in Australia, including the Bureau's Metarch series.

The url is: http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/

I contributed two essays to the site which are meant to provide some broader cultural context and to introduce a few themes and issues. You can either read them on the Federation and Meteorology site, or you can view them here, formatted as single pages (easier for printing). They are entitled:

• a climate for a nation [READ LOCAL VERSION]
• the weather prophets [READ LOCAL VERSION]

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climate and culture conference

A National Academies Forum symposium on the theme of 'climate and culture in Australia' was held on 25-27 September 2002 in Canberra.

For further information go to the The human elements site at:

http://humanelements.info