Charges for climate services

At a glance

This is a summary of the way the Bureau of Meteorology charges for climate related data and information.

Charges for weather station data from the Bureau's archive

Category 1 requests - charged at $22.00

You will need to provide weather station details (site number and name) and any other relevant information (period, weather element etc.) for your data request. See examples of typical client requests.

For requests with many stations please provide your list in spreadsheet format.

Hint: use the Weather Station Directory to find details of weather stations.

Category 2 requests - charged at $40.00

You will be charged at this rate if we need to search for station details and/or provide you with advice to assist you with your data requirements. See examples of typical client requests.

Hint: by using the Weather Station Directory to provide us with the relevant details of your request (see example under Category 1) you can save time and money.

Note: for the above categories, requests involving numerous stations may incur multiple charges.

Category 3 requests - based on time and resources taken to complete the work

This is for more specialised and tailored types of work. We will need to investigate your request and provide you with a quote. Examples of this kind of work are requests for very large amounts of data, mapped products, gridded datasets, reprocessing maps and images from our web site, radar data, model ocean data, model atmospheric data, specialised analyses and advisory services.
See examples of typical client requests.

Note: we may not have the resources available to fulfil every request, but we will try and help you as much as we can.

Legal statements

If you need data to be certified for a legal statement we may be able to provide a Certified Extract. The minimum charge for a Certified Extract is $125.

Paying for the data/information

Once we know the details of your request, we will supply you with a quote. However, we won't begin the work until you have accepted the quote and provided us with payment details. Please note:

• Payment is required before we start the job.
• Payment can be made by Bankcard, MasterCard, Visa, cheque or money order.
• We do not accept Diners Club cards.

Note: quotes for overseas clients are calculated as GST-free.

When will you get your request?

We aim to service requests within 5 working days for Category 1 and 2 requests. However, in periods of heavy demand it may take us up to 10 working days. An Urgency Fee (GST inclusive) will apply to requests requiring urgent attention. Jobs less than $360 incur an $81.70 fee. For jobs $360 or more the fee is 30% of the total cost of the job.

Note: urgent requests may not be possible during periods of heavy demand.

Invoices and GST

When you receive your data you'll be provided with a payment receipt.
See an example of a typical payment receipt.

We can issue invoices for some category 3 requests. You will need to provide us with an official purchase order. Terms of credit are strictly thirty days and a down payment may be required.

Charges are GST inclusive (this includes the provision of the data or information, as well as any documentation and payment receipts).

Students

If you are a primary, secondary or full-time (unfunded) tertiary student, you can receive one data request free of charge, as long as it is a Category 1 type request and not already freely available from the Bureau's web site.

Why we charge?

The Bureau of Meteorology is legislatively bound to follow the Australian Government Cost Recovery Guidelines. These guidelines require the Bureau to charge, on a cost-recovery basis, for products and services which do not form part of the Basic Product Set or are not readily available on the Bureau's web site. Some climate data are available free of charge at Climate Data Online as part of the Basic Product Set.