As the 1925/26 summer approached, the Government meteorologist, Mr Hunt, warned that temperatures over the ensuing weeks were expected to be higher than the previous year and much of the country to the north was already parched.
The Commission became keenly interested in the practical application of meteorology and believed that relative humidity was a prime factor affecting fire frequency and behaviour.
As a result, the Government Meteorological Bureau installed instruments to accurately record temperature, relative humidity and wind speed on several fire lookouts, commencing from Mount Drummer in far east Gippsland and extending west and north on other peaks across the mountains.
The Commission hoped to not only make better preparations for its firefighting staff but also to be able to broadcast public information about dangerous fire weather.
But it wasn’t until Alan McArthur’s groundbreaking work at Canberra in the late 1950s and the development of his fire models that some scientific understanding of bushfire behaviour was available to practicing foresters.
Victoria’s Forests & Bushfire Heritage 