In 1903 H. C. Russell, Government Astronomer at Sydney Observatory, fell seriously ill and his position was taken over by Henry Alfred Lenehan. Lenehan who had been working at the observatory since 1870 was officially made the Government Astronomer in 1905.

After his long wait the position proved to be somewhat of a poisoned chalice as he was immediately beset with problems. Light levels made observations at Observatory Hill difficult and Lenehan was convinced the observatory should be moved to Red Hill, where the astrograph was already situated. As it turned out this was highly unlikely given the cuts to the Observatory's funding and in the end Lenehan only managed to move the magnetic measuring instruments there.

Lenehan did not give up however and in 1907 he set out to find a new site with the Observatory Advisory Board. The members of this Board included W. E. Raymond from the observatory staff as well as, E. Du Faur, J. Brooks, C. J. Merfield and W. I. Macdonnell, all well-known Australian amateur astronomers.

After looking at sites at Mount Wilson and Mount Canobolas in New South Wales the project was put on hold. In early 1908 Lenehan was faced with another blow when responsibility for weather observations was transferred to the Commonwealth Government. In addition the office of the new Meteorological Bureau was set up in the Government Astronomer's residence occupied by Lenehan. The culmination of these events occurred in May 1908 when Lenehan died after a series of strokes.

Geoff Barker, Curatorial, October, 2008

References
Haynes, Raymond, Haynes, Roslynn, Malin, David, McGee, Richard, Explorers of the Southern Sky, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996

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