The Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology is the national meteorological service (NMS) of Australia.

Legal status

The legal basis for its existence is the Commonwealth Constitution of Australia, which, through its Section 51 (viii), empowers the Federal Parliament to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Commonwealth with respect to '… meteorological observations'. The Bureau was established by the Meteorology Act 1906 and formally came into existence on 1 January 1908 through consolidation of the separate Colonial/State Meteorological Services, which had existed prior to that time. The Bureau currently operates under the authority of the Meteorology Act 1955, which provides the explicit legal basis and, together with the Convention of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and other national and international agreements and treaties, the basic charter for its operations.

The Bureau of Meteorology became an Executive Agency on 1 July 2002. The Director of Meteorology is responsible to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage.

Organisation

The Head Office of the Bureau is in Melbourne, with seven Regional Offices in New South Wales (Sydney), Northern Territory (Darwin), Queensland (Brisbane), South Australia (Adelaide), Tasmania (Hobart), Victoria (Melbourne) and Western Australia (Perth).

The overall mission of the Bureau involves four basic missions.

• Monitoring
  
• Research
  
• Services (including Weather, Climate, Oceanographic, Hydrological and Commercial Services)
  
• International

There are altogether 26 Programmes, including a few on cross-cutting and corporate activities.

The Bureau's Corporate Vision is that it will be, and be seen to be, an efficient, robust professional NMS serving the community to the highest standards possible with state-of-the-art meteorological science and technology.

The Bureau currently operates a WMO World Meteorological Centre in Melbourne, two Regional Specialised Meteorological Centres (RSMC) with geographical specialisation in Melbourne and Darwin, a RSMC in Melbourne for Environmental Emergency Response, and a Joint WMO-IOC Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM) Specialised Oceanographic Centre in Melbourne. A Regional Association V (South-West Pacific) Regional Instruments Centre and a Centre of Excellence in Meteorological Satellite Training are also located in Melbourne.

Co-operation with other Commonwealth meteorologists

The Bureau is empowered to co-operate with other NMSs under the Meteorology Act 1955. Australia is also an active participant of the WMO Voluntary Co-operation Programme (VCP).

Every year from early February to late November, the Bureau of Meteorology Training Centre (BMTC) runs an accredited Postgraduate Diploma in Meteorology (DipMet) Course in Melbourne to train WMO Class 1 personnel. Places on the course are limited but participation by other NMSs is welcome.

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