VPRS 780 Inward Correspondence, Melbourne Observatory

Full description

The earliest official records of Meteorological Observations, made within the State of Victoria are those published in the Government Gazette of New South Wales in the form of Monthly Abstracts from the Meteorological Journal kept at Port Phillip for the period 1840- 1851. During this time the observing station was located at Melbourne within the Flagstaff Gardens, then known as Flagstaff Hill.

From 1855 to 1858 meteorological observations were made at Melbourne and at some twenty stations in different districts of the Colony, under the supervision of Mr. R. Brough Smythe, Director of Meteorological Observations, which were organised and administered as a branch of the Public Lands Office until 1870 and from 1870 to ? 1945 as a branch of Chief Secretary's Department VA 475).

The account and results of the meteorological work carried out under B Smythe are found in his three Meteorological Reports presented to both Houses of the Victorian Parliament.

In 1858 the Meteorological and Magnetical Observatory, known as the Flagstaff Observatory, was established by Professor Neumayer in the buildings of the old Flagstaff Signal Station on the same Flagstaff Hill. The Meteorological Branch of the Public Lands Office was amalgamated with it and placed under Professor Neumayer's direction on 1 March, 1859.

The Flagstaff Observatory remained in full uninterrupted activity for five years. In 1863, on Neumayer's return to Europe, the magnetic and meteorological equipment was transferred to the Astronomical Observatory, since known as The Melbourne Observatory, and placed under the direction of R.L.J. Ellery, the then Government Astronomer of Victoria.

From 1863 to 1871, only the results of meteorological observations made at Melbourne were published by the Melbourne Observatory in the local newspapers as Monthly Abstracts. From 1872 to 1907, the results of meteorological observations from all stations in Victoria were published.

On 31 December 1907, the Melbourne Observatory relinquished all its meteorological duties. The government of the Commonwealth of Australia took over the State meteorological services.

This series documented the activities of the Melbourne Observatory.