Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of my most pleasurable duties as Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water is announcing 'firsts', particularly when that first happens to occur in my home state of South Australia. Therefore, it was with a great deal of delight that I recently visited the town of Ceduna on the west coast of South Australia to officially commission the town's new Bureau of Meteorology office and to announce the installation of Austra­lia's first regional vertical wind profiler. The profiler replaces upper air wind observations that would otherwise use weather balloons.

Ceduna has had an operating bureau station since 1939. Interestingly enough, not long after that, my uncle was just off the coast of Ceduna in a ship as he was preparing to enter the Navy. Today it is one of about 50 locations in Australia that are part of a massive global network of surface and upper air monitoring stations. These stations feed data into sophisticated compu­ter models. They are critical to forecasting weather in advance and act as early warning stations, alerting us to severe or hazardous weather conditions.

Of course, Ceduna, with a population of 4,000, is more than just a weather station. It is located on beautiful Murat Bay, about 800 kilometres west of Adelaide and 1,900 kilometres east of Senator Back's home town of Perth. As you would know, Mr President, Ceduna is regarded as the oyster capital of Australia. Murat Bay was declared a town and called Ceduna 110 years ago this year, although locals never called it by its proper name until the railway reached the town in 1915.

The unofficial capital of South Australia's far west coast and the Nullarbor Plain, Ceduna has many tourist attractions, includ­ing whale-watching during the winter months; surfing at Cactus Beach, arguably the best in Australia; and the beautiful and wild Gawler Rangers, which are a comfort­able drive inland. Ceduna is also the location of wheat, barley and oat farming. I was particularly impressed to see just how lush the crops were compared with three years ago when I was there. Ceduna also has wool and sheep enterprises, and the mining of salt, gypsum and mineral sands. Of course, the fishing is great all year round. Smoky Bay and Denial Bay oysters, grown and harvested in the region's pristine ocean waters are amongst the world's finest. The best time to visit Ceduna is on the South Australian October long weekend, when it hosts Australia's largest oyster festival. The Oysterfest features delicious local oysters, both cooked and natural.

But I have got off the topic of weather and I would like get back onto it. Ceduna is actually the first of nine offices nationally to receive one of the new wind profilers I referred to earlier. The model used at Ceduna is a boundary layer profiler, designed to monitor wind speeds in the atmospheric boundary layer near the earth's surface, enabling continuous reporting of winds from about 300 metres to at least five kilometres above the station.

Traditionally, upper atmospheric wind data are collected using weather balloons, released up to four times per day—and quite an expensive operation. This new wind profiler can produce vertical wind profiles every 30 minutes, greatly improving the ability to monitor storms and weather systems, and support accurate and timely forecasts and warnings. It allows the weather radar to provide a 24-hour continuous weather watch for the region, without having to switch to weather balloon tracking mode for several hours each day. The wind profiler is essentially a vertical-pointing radar and works by transmitting and receiving radio frequency energy. It sends up a pulse of energy, which is then scattered back to the profiler.

Turbulent air motion in the atmosphere creates variations in temperature, pressure and humidity relative to the surrounding atmosphere. These variations affect the refractive index of the atmosphere and the scattering of the radio frequency energy. These scatters move with the background wind and as a result the profiler is able to infer the wind speed and direction. Mr President, I see you are nodding and under­standing all of this very comprehensively, as is Senator Colbeck, whom I know has an interest in these sorts of things.

Interestingly enough—and this will particularly impress you, Mr President—a South Australian company ATRAD was the successful tenderer for the supply of the nine vertical wind profilers to the bureau. ATRAD produces state-of-the-art, cost-effective radar systems for measuring and interpreting the state of the atmosphere, and provides excellent scientific and technical advice about remote sensing of atmospheric phenomena. ATRAD is an excellent South Australian success story and produces a range of weather radars, antennas and analysers for China and India as well as for the Australian market.

The Ceduna weather station has also received an upgraded weather radar on a taller tower, at a height of 16 metres—so it is very prominent near the airport—which enables continuous weather surveillance over a greater range, out to approximately 150 kilometres. The new wind profiler and radar provide enhanced weather information, which is of vital importance for South Australia, and also enhance the bureau's national network of observations across land, sea and air. The new facilities help fore­casters understand the weather in an area of Australia where data has been relatively sparse in the past. The facilities will provide valuable information through the bureau's website for the benefit of industry, the aviation and rural sectors, local emergency services and the general public.

Observations started at Ceduna Meteor­ological Office in 1939 when the RAAF, in conjunction with the then Department of Civil Aviation, opened the airport. At that time, the meteorological office was in the terminal building on the north side of the air­port. It operated from there until 1969, when it moved to a new building on the south side of the airport. The new meteorological office reached practical completion on the same sight in June 2010 and has since been staffed by two bureau technical officers.

The office is state of the art and is constructed to be environmentally friendly while withstanding extreme weather condit­ions. The Ceduna office is part of a world­wide network of surface and upper air observing stations, of which there are, as I mentioned earlier, more than 50 in Australia. The data from the station are vital in determining the present state of the weather, as the starting point for providing weather forecasts and are also critical for climate, providing valuable information on long-term trends and variations in local weather. A remote balloon launching facility has been installed, providing staff with a safer way to release hydrogen-filled weather balloons, which will continue to be used now and then to supplement the wind profiler as necessary.

Finally, I look forward to being able to continue talking about Australian firsts, particularly South Australian firsts like these great new Bureau of Meteorology facilities at Ceduna.

Senate adjourned at 19:15