IN one of the previously secret 1983 state cabinet documents, released on New Year's Day under the 30-year rule, it was revealed the Bjelke-Petersen cabinet agreed to spend the money to conduct cloud seeding operations in Queensland.
The document reveals that $50,000 was spent on the trial.
In his February 18, 1983, submission to cabinet, Sir Joh successfully urged his colleagues to bankroll a trial of American meteorologist Irvine Krick's cloud seeding scheme.
"Basically, the Krick process generates ionised silver iodine particles in a generator located on the ground," Sir Joh wrote in his submission to cabinet.
"These particles are subsequently conveyed to the target cloud area by natural convection currents where they are released to increase the probability of rain."
Dr Irving, whose forecasts are credited with the timing of the massive D-day invasion of Normandy in World War II, was the United States' first commercial cloud seeder.
He died in 1996, aged 89.
In its obituary, the New York Times noted the American meteorological establishment, with whom Dr Irving had battled throughout his life, "thought his rainmaking techniques [were] of questionable value".
But, 13 years earlier in Queensland, Sir Joh at least was willing to give him a chance to prove his theories.
And time was of the essence.
"[Mr Krick's agent Albert] Oaki stressed that the chances of success in rain making are greatly enhanced if the process is carried out during the wet season and this allowed possibly only a further six to eight weeks, within Queensland this financial year," Sir Joh told his cabinet colleagues.
"The president of the Cattlemen's Union has suggested that the process may have applicability to the present drought situation facing Queensland's cattle producers ...
"I believe that the Krick process should, at least, be tested under the Queensland conditions during the current season, with a view to evaluating its potential for future larger scale weather modification, e.g. hail suppression and rainfall precipitation."
In 1983, more than 50 shires were drought declared in Queensland.
