An automatic weather station vital to the safety of the Navy, boat operators, the people of Perth and emergency service workers, in that it will tell them when the 'Doctor' has arrived, has been officially switched on at HMAS Stirling.

The device, costing just $70,000 is the result of a cooperative effort by the commanding officer and staff of Stirling and the Western Australian regional office of the Bureau of Meteorology.

The weather station has been built on a hillock near the Helicopter Support Base at Fleet Base West.

Every few minutes sensors record the temperature, humidity, wind direction and wind speed. A rain gauge records any precipitation. The data is then transmitted by radio to the Weather Bureau in Perth and to a RAN weather receiving station at Stirling.

"The automatic station fills a black hole in weather information for this part of Western Australia," the then commanding officer of Stirling CMDR Vince Di Pietro, said at the official launching ceremony.

"For this base it will provide information which will tell us if we can send a ship from the weather protected wharves of the base up to the more exposed and remote ammunition wharf at the northern end of the island.

"It will also provide weather data for the helicopter pilots operating from the base."

CMDR Di Pietro said the introduction of the weather service almost made the base "complete," he added "All we need now is an oceanography service".

Mr Allan Scott, the regional director of the WA Bureau of Meteorology, joined CMDR Di Pietro to cut the ribbon launching the station.

He described the station as 'valuable' in observing weather changes south of Perth. Mr Scott said it would give forecasters and early warning of the arrival of the "Fremantle Doctor", a strong south-westerly wind which blows in from the sea. The early notification of the "doctor" could be used by forecasters to alert boat operators still at sea.

It would also give fire controllers coordinating bush firefighting operations east of Perth vital lead time to remove firefighters to safety from the 'dead man's zone', the bushland area adjoining the flank of a bushfire which becomes a fast running inferno when hit by a sudden change of wind such as that of the 'Doctor'.

By Graham Davis