Darn, it's the end of an era

FOURTEEN years later and with two Wagga records under his belt, Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) technical officer John Darnley bade the city farewell yesterday.Originally from Melbourne, Mr Darn-ley arrived at the bure-au's Wagga field office in 1997 after six moves in 12 years and the family decided to make the city their home."At that stage my daughter was still in primary school and my son had just started high school (so we stayed) so they could finish their education and could make close friends knowing that in three years, Dad's not going to pick them up and move again. Wagga had everything we needed," he said.Now that son Stuart and recently engaged daughter Heather are back in Melbourne, Mr Darnley will head back there after being promoted to bureau headquarters in the Victorian capital. His first day in the new role is Tuesday, and he and wife Anne will move over the next few weeks."They are very happy ... my daughter has for some time been saying she wished we were half an hour away, not five hours away, and my wife's very pleased," he said.Over the 14 years, Mr Darnley has taken down quite a few minor records at the Met office at Forest Hill, and counts himself lucky to have be-en the one to note the big records as well."I was on duty for the hottest day on record, when it got to 45.2 degrees on February 7 last year, I was lucky to get that, and I was lucky to be on duty yesterday (Thursday) when it passed 1000mm of rain," he said.He also spent six months in Antarctica from October 2006 to April 2007, and a six-month stint at the Giles field office in central Australia.Mr Darnley was successful in applying for a weather observer position in 1985, and still today says "it's the best thing I ever did".