Harold Burnham Curlewis and the WA Government’s Celestial Vision

By Paul Jones

There were eight Government Astronomers or Directors of the Perth Observatory, from its foundation in 1896 to when the government ceased operating it as a research facility, in 2015, and entered into an agreement with the Perth Observatory Volunteer Group to run the Observatory as an astronomical outreach and education business.

The most famous Government Astronomer is William Earnest Cooke who led the Observatory from its foundation in 1896 to 1912 when he left to be Government Astronomer at the Sydney Observatory. However, the longest serving Government Astronomer was the man who replaced Cooke, Harold Burnham Curlewis, who was the acting (1912-1920) or appointed (1920-40) Government Astronomer, a period of twentyeight years.

Although he served for the longest time, H.B. Curlewis, probably had the most difficult time of all government astronomers. He didn’t have great support from the government who kept him acting Government Astronomer for 8 years because they were trying to close the Observatory down or have the Commonwealth government or the University of Western Australia take it over. Curlewis also ran the Observatory during the depression of the 1930s for a lot of the time he was on his own.

However, H. B. Curlewis was involved in all the large Perth Observatory achievements in the first part of the 20th century (Astrographic project, seismology, tide forecasting, the keeping and distribution of WST) and his manful striving to improve the quality of the Observatory’s activities are well documented in the Observatory’s archival records along with a good indication of his personality and values.

It is a small coincidence that this article is written in the month that the ShorttSynchronome clocks are being reinstalled in the Observatory Museum following their restoration to working order. There is a whole file in the archives of Curlewis’ efforts in the 1930s to raise the funds to buy the more accurate Shortt-Synchronome clocks to replace the two Kullberg longcase astronomical regulators that had been serving as the Australian Western Standard Time timekeepers since 1900.

When he couldn’t get the funds, Curlewis tried to get the clocks loaned or given to him, but all in vain as funds to replace the Kullberg’s with Shortt-Synchronomes were not forthcoming until the late 1950s for one and the early 1960s for the other.

However, this little anecdote is not directly about time, although it plays a very significant part, but about fixing the eastern boundary of Western Australia in the south and the north.

H.B Curlewis

H.B Curlewis was born at Moolal Farm, near Geelong in Victoria in 1874. He began his formal education at Newington College, Stanmore, outside of Sydney. From there he won a bursary to Sydney University where he took a classics degree, studying Greek, Latin, French and Mathematics.

Curlewis was an excellent scholar and sportsman earning a “University Blue” for sporting activities.

In 1898, Curlewis took a position at the Perth Observatory as a computer-observer, where he learned astronomy assisting W. E. Cooke on the Astrograph Telescope. The Chief Assistant to Cooke, H.M Jocelyne, left the Observatory in 1908 to go to the Federal Bureau of Meteorology, and Curlewis assumed Jocelyne’s job as Chief Assistant. In 1912, Cooke left to become Government Astronomer at the Sydney Observatory and Curlewis became Acting Government Astronomer of Perth Observatory.

Fixing the WA Boundary

The boundary between Western Australia, South Australia, and the Northern Territory had been nominally set on the 129th East Meridian, however, no one was sure exactly where that was, nor was it of pressing importance. The ambivalence toward the exact point of the 129th meridian changed in 1918 after the building of the transcontinental railway. There was a desire to know exactly where the rail crossed into WA, and in the north, the cattle station owners living along the boundary, with the WA Government, wanted to know just whether or which part of the stations were in WA.

In 1918, Curlewis wrote to his counterpart in Adelaide, G.F. Dodwell, asking if he would cooperate in determining the 129th meridian.

From then, what had been a straightforward proposition took three years to set on a scheme of action as the parties involved expanded to other state observatories, conferences were held, discussions on how best to get the required accuracy, disputes over funding amounts, and even international cooperation was sought. Eventually the Commonwealth took control of the work plan, and then the Longitude Committee gave the go-ahead in February 1921. An Act was passed by the Commonwealth to legitimise the survey result as the official boundary, even if later more accurate surveys showed it to be in error – after all the wrangling they were not going to have it undone!

There is no doubt that Curlewis believed the work to be highly significant, as he left behind an article justifying the work by citing instances of conflicts over borders from all over the world from ancient Egyptian times up to his present day.

The plan was to build an observing pillar at Deakin on the trans line in the south and as close as possible to the 129th meridian on Argyle station in east Kimberley. The latitude and longitude of each pillar was to be accurately determined, then the position of the 129th meridian in the north and south computed and a line drawn south to north between them.

As Greenwich is zero degrees longitude and the earth rotates 360 degrees in 24 hours, the 129th meridian must be 8 hours 36 minutes from Greenwich. Therefore, the technique for determining longitude in the 1920s, was to determine the time difference between the point of measurement and a station of known longitude. The time difference between two stations can be measured by determining the time when a known star crosses the meridian at each point and as this method is so reliant on accurate time, clocks were set using time signals from various countries.

Being on the trans line Deakin was easy to access consequently its longitude was measured first in May 1921 and determined from a weighted average based on time signals from Bordeaux and Lyons in France, the US Naval Academy in Annapolis Maryland, Washington, and Adelaide. The longitude was determined to be 8 hrs, 35 minutes, 62.63 seconds East.

The longitude party from Deakin proceeded to Perth and caught the coastal steamer “Bambera” to Wyndham landing on June 12th where they were met by Hon M. P. Durack the local member. On the 15th of June, the party headed out from Wyndham to Ivanhoe, a distance of 80 kilometres, with all their gear in two cars, one owned by Mr. Durack and the other hired. A correspondent in the party noted that:

“Generally speaking, the track is fairly good for motoring, but over the black boggy country is very bumpy, and diversity is also lent by the numerous creeks that have to be negotiated – occasionally necessitating jumpingoutandpushingthecarsacrossand up the opposite bank.”

A day was spent at Ivanhoe preparing, then the party set off to Argyle Downs 130 kilometres away by wagonette and buggy as the track was now too rough and sandy for motor car. The party arrived on June 20th at the desired spot and set about building the cement pillars for the instruments, erecting the radio masts, and putting up the tents.

When the cement pillars had set, the 12” theodolite of H. B. Curlewis was set on one, and the portable transit of Dadswell on another and observations for time commenced and carried out until the 7th of July. The 12-inch theodolite and the chronometers used to keep time can be seen in the Observatory Museum.

Time signals from Bordeaux, Lyons, and Annapolis were received readily. The times of transmission of these signals were also recorded by observers in Paris, Greenwich, and the Perth and Adelaide Observatories, and a redetermination of the longitude of the Observatories were made.

The longitude for the Argyle station was determined to be 8 hours 36 minutes 5.5. seconds East.

From these fixed points, the 129th meridian was surveyed in.

Postscript

Despite their best efforts, the equipment they were using, and the manual efforts resulted in errors such that the Argyle station was 0.2 seconds west of the true position and Deakin east by 0.1 seconds. This meant that the two markers straddled the 129th meridian 127 metres apart.

The Surveyor General’s corner, where the borders of Western Australia, South Australia, and the Northern Territory meet is marked by two concrete posts, 127 metres apart leading to a step in the boundary – but you won’t see it on any map!