About this episode

The episode explores Australia's historical climate records through diaries and logs, discussing the significance of pre-instrumental weather observations.

Join hosts Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick and Iain Strachan as they welcome historical climatologist Dr Linden Ashcroft and PhD candidate Ruchit Kulkarni, both from the University of Melbourne. This ep the panel dig through diaries, ship logs and colonial era weather stations in search of Australia's climate before the instrumental record began. What counts as a reliable weather observation from 1830? Why does a reference period matter for understanding today's extremes? And why is the Southern Hemisphere's climate history so much thinner than the Northern Hemisphere's? The episode traces how pre-Bureau of Meteorology data, from convict-era rain gauges to a lighthouse keeper's logbook on Gabo Island are rescued, digitised and quality-checked before it can be trusted. Deadly droughts, time-series analysis, historical data in research and the beauty of stories that stood the test of time and science. All part of this cooked up ep going back in time. So dust off the family diaries and tune in as Totally Cooked goes looking for Australia's climate in the historical record — and asks what two centuries of old numbers can tell us about the droughts and floods still to come. Iain…

People in this episode

Hosts: Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, Iain Strachan

Guests: Dr Linden Ashcroft, Ruchit Kulkarni

Topics covered

• historical climatology
• Australia's climate history
• weather observations
• droughts and floods
• data digitization
• colonial weather records

Keywords

• climate records
• weather history
• Australia
• historical data
• drought
• flood
• data quality
• colonial era
• time-series analysis

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Melbourne

Places: Australia, Gabo Island, Bunurong People, Kulin Nation, Ngunnawal, Ngambri

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