Rosea Lilian Kemp (5 June 1941 – 27 December 2015) was an Australian meteorologist.
Rosea Kemp | |
|---|---|
| Born | 5 June 1941  |
| Died | 27 December 2015 (aged 74) |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Meteorologist, weather presenter |
Rosea Lilian Boyd was born on 5 June 1941 in Melbourne, and named after Mount Rosea, in The Grampians, where her parents had taken their honeymoon.[1][2] She attended Hampton High School and MacRobertson Girls' School.[3]
She was first woman to be awarded an Australian Bureau of Meteorology cadetship, enabling her to study for a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Melbourne.[1][2][4] She joined the bureau in 1959, after her mother successfully lobbied for a change in the rules to allow women to apply for cadetships,[1][2][3] and was one of two women who were the second and third to graduate from its training school, in 1962.[5]
Moving to England, she achieved fame as a weather forecaster for BBC radio in London, employed—as was usual at the time—by the Met Office.[1][2][6] She was then the only woman broadcasting weather forecasts in England.[7] During that period, she appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 25 December 1968.[6] She also met and married fellow Australian John Kemp, while working in the UK.[2][8]
After returning to Australia on 1 December 1969, on board the SS Oriana,[9] she again worked at the Bureau of Meteorology, and then ran a consultancy, called Weatherex, with Don Douglas, studying the storms of the New South Wales coast,[1] before returning to the bureau for a third stint in September 1988.[2]
She received the Bureau of Meteorology long-service award in 2003, in the presence of her mother.[2]
She died on 27 December 2015 in Sydney,[1] survived by two sons.[2] An obituary was published in the Bulletin of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society.[1][2]
She was described as:
a trailblazer for women in Australian meteorology, being the first woman to be awarded a cadetship by the Bureau of Meteorology to study for her BSc
by The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h "Kemp, Rosea Lilian - Person". Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation. Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Voice, Mary; Zillman, John (2016). "Rosea Lillian Kemp 1941-2015". Bulletin of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. 29: 17-19.
- ^ a b "Jobs With A Difference... Calculating The Climate Their Task". The Age. 1 January 1960. p. 6.
- ^ Windows on Meteorology: Australian Perspective. Csiro Publishing. 1997. p. 103. ISBN 9780643060388.
- ^ "The weather women: how a group of pioneers brought equality to Australian meteorology". Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology. 30 April 2015. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
- ^ a b "Desert Island Discs - Castaway : Rosea Kemp". BBC Online. BBC. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
- ^ Rendell, Anne-Marie (1 April 1969). "Three Pages for Women The girl who feels like a fish in a bowl". Canberra Times. p. 21. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
- ^ "A Rosea View of the Weather". Evening Times. 27 March 1968. p. 5.
- ^ "Bringing Sunshine?". The Sydney Morning Herald. 30 November 1969.
External links
edit- Ickenham Miniature Railway history with photo of Kemp opening the railway