These data, reported in various volumes of CSIRO's "Oceanographical Station List" series between 1952 and 1957, comprise mainly measurements of temperature, salinity, nitrate, phosphate, and dissolved oxygen at estuary mouths and upstream for various distances, ranging from a few miles to almost 150 miles in some cases: e.g. for Tasmania's Derwent River, 20 stations were measured including various tributaries (Clyde, Ouse, Nive and Shannon) as well as lakes in the river system (Great Lake, Lake St. Clair). Sampling started in the 1940s and included the Nerang and Coomera Rivers, Moreton Bay and Brisbane River, Logan River and Dunwich Oyster Lease (QLD); Richmond River, Clarence River, Macleay River, Hastings River, Manning River, Port Stephens, Tilligerry Creek, Hawkesbury River, Middle Harbour and Port Jackson, Georges River-Botany Bay, Port Hacking, Lake Illawarra, Shoalhaven River, Jervis Bay, Clyde River, Moruya River, Tuross River, and Wagonga Inlet (NSW); Port Phillip Heads (VIC); and Tamar River, Derwent River, Huon River, D'Entrecasteaux Channel, Lake Dobson, and Penna Dam (TAS). In the early 1950s the study was extended to Fitzroy River, Mary River, Gladstone Harbour, Sandy Island Strait and Moreton Island Lagoon (QLD); Maianbar-Port Hacking and Lake Macquarie (NSW); Pittwater (TAS); and King George Sound, Wilson's Inlet, Nornalup Inlet, Hardy Inlet, Leschanault Inlet, Peel-Harvey Estuary and Swan River (WA). 24-hour studies were carried out at some of the sites, and bottom samples also taken for measuring phosphorus, iron, organic carbon and total nitrogen. By 1955-6, sampling was being mostly discontinued in favour of coastal station monitoring, with the exception of Lake Macquarie which was at that time the focus of a major study.

ERA-40 2.5° by 2.5° reanalysis archive containing primary (4-times daily GRIB) and processed (4-times daily and climatological netCDF)data. The atmospheric model used for ERA-40 has the identifier IFS CY23r4 and is comprehensively documented on the ECMWF website at http://www.ecmwf.int/research/ifsdocs/CY23r4/index.html. It has 60 levels in the vertical, uses a T159 spherical-harmonic representation for the dynamical fields, and a reduced Gaussian grid with an approximately uniform 125 kilometre spacing for surface and other grid-point fields. An essential part of the ERA-40 activity was the production of an archive of data in GRIB format. Parameters such as the 4-times daily surface and pressure level files were processed to produce COARDS conforming netCDF files which are self describing, machine transperant and which employ a similar metacode specification to that in the NCEP re-analysis files. This makes it possible for users of the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis to be able to easily switch data input to ERA-40. Only the 4-times daily GRIB files have been further processed and are on a 2.5 by 2.5 degree horizontal grid (144 by 73 regular grid points) for each of the standard 23 pressure levels (0001, 0002, 0003, 0005, 0007, 0010, 0020, 0030, 0050, 0070, 0100, 0150, 0200, 0250, 0300, 0400, 0500, 0600, 0700, 0775, 0850, 0925 and 1000)