Weather watching volunteers 'drying up' across South Australia
A dwindling number of volunteers is collecting some of the weather bureau's most important data from across South Australia.
Among those supporting the weather forecasters is farmer Allan Freebairn from Condowie, near Snowtown, who takes a bucket out into his yard at 9:00am each day.
"I just walk out to the rain gauge and measure the rain and write it on a chart," he said.
His family started measuring the rainfall there back in 1879 and some of the old, handwritten records are still kept by the current-day family members, allowing them to get an historical perspective on the local weather.
"Yeah, 1914 was renowned for being a bad drought, I think probably statewide," Mr Freebairn said.
"They had no crop, no feed, the sheep were dying of starvation."
Same weather clipboard used since 1860
Bungaree Station, north of Clare, is the oldest privately-run rainfall measuring station in SA and the locals have been recording the downpours and droughts since 1860.
Mark Stewart and his colleagues puts the data on the the same clipboard which has been used since the early days of recording there.
"I'm not sure if it's an heirloom, like it's something that we have always done the records on," he said.
"July was the wettest July we've had in ages, we're seven inches ahead of average, then all of a sudden it's dropped right off for the last three months."
There are about 600 rainfall observers across South Australia and an estimated 6,000 Australia-wide, Bureau of Meteorology observations manager Rob Barclay said.
"We've got rainfall gauges from Cordillo Downs to Cook, from Pipalyatjara to Port MacDonnell," he said of the SA locations.
Earlier in the year, the bureau's 'rain man' at Port Lincoln died and a vacancy remains there, along with some other locations across the state as the official forecasters search for new people to 'drip feed' them their vital weather statistics.
"It's not so much that people are less inclined to volunteer, it's more so a case the population in regional areas is becoming thinner on the ground," Mr Barclay said.
The forecasters will keep looking to the skies but they also will keep looking to regional communities to back their important work.
