Handcock, Donald Edwin (Don) (1926 - )

Summary

Don Handcock was a Superintending Meteorologist in Facilities Branch, Bureau of Meteorology, 1976-1987.

Details

Born 2 August 1926. Educated Moorabbin and Myrrhee State Schools and Mordialloc High School (Dux of School, 1942). Initial RAAF Aircrew Training Course No. 63. RAAF Meteorological Charters Course No. 31 and Meteorological Assistants Course No. 17. BSc (Physics, Meteorology Course), University of Melbourne, 1953. 2nd Cadet Meteorologist Course, Bureau of Meteorology 1950-1953. Joined the RAAF as an Aircrew Trainee, 1944, and transferred to RAAF Meteorological Service, 1945. Served as Meteorological Assistant (0bserver), RAAF, at Balikpapan, Borneo and later at Mt Gambier, 1945-1946. On discharge from the RAAF joined the Bureau of Meteorology at Melbourne in 1946. Observer at Essendon, Laverton and Darwin, Observer in Charge at Katherine and Daly Waters and Meteorological Assistant, Head Office, 1946-1949. Cadet Meteorologist, 1950-1953. Meteorologist in Charge Workshops and Laboratories, 1954-1960. Senior Meteorologist Standards and Observations, 1960-1964. Senior Meteorologist Networks and Facilities, 1965-1967. Supervising Meteorologist Observation Practices, 1968-1969. Supervising Meteorologist Networks and Traffic, 1970-1975. Superintending Meteorologist Observations and Traffic, 1976-1981. Adviser to the Director, Observations and Systems, Meteorology and Environment Protection Administration, Saudi Arabia, 1982-1985. Superintending Meteorologist, Special Projects, Facilities Branch, 1986-1987. Represented Australia at World Meteorological Association Meetings: 2nd International Pyrheliometric Comparisons, Davos, 1964; 4th and 5th Sessions of Regional Association V, Wellington 1966 and Kuala Lumpur 1970; Meetings of Working Groups on implementation and co-ordination of meteorological telecommunications in Asia and the SW Pacific, Singapore and Colombo 1973 and 1975; 6th Session of the Commission for Basic Systems, Belgrade, 1966.

After his retirement in 1987, Don as a consultant to the Bureau of Meteorology, co-ordinated the training, in Australia, of meteorologists from Saudi Arabia, Iran and Mauritius. He was Upper Air Observations Systems Co-ordinator for the World Meteorological Organization TOGA COARE, (Tropical Oceans, Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment), 1991; and identified and consolidated sources of information about historical observations practices in Australia, for the National Climate Centre. He has also written a number of articles for the Bureau of Meteorology's house magazine Weather News on aspects of the history of meteorology in Australia and edited Metarch Papers No. 10 'War History of the Australian Meteorological Service in the Royal Australian Airforce April 1941 to July 1946'.

Published resources

Resources

• 'Handcock, Donald Edwin (1926-)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1473892. Details

See also

• Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/index_h.html. Details