At a time when climate change has made the monitoring of weather of great importance, the cuts have been made because of the 3.25pc efficiency dividend demanded of all government agencies and departments.

Staff have told their union, the Community and Public Sector Union, the cuts will affect the quality and quantity of weather statistics.

"Climate change is arguably the biggest challenge the Federal Government and decision makers face," the union's national president, Louise Persse, said.

"The decisions our leaders make need to be evidence-based.

"Now is not the time to be cutting jobs and slashing funding in an area critical to meeting this massive challenge.

"What we need are the best people working with the best technology to ensure we achieve the best outcomes in the fight against climate change."

The Bureau has told staff there will be no forced redundancies and people will not be made to move to other towns.

The changes will affect weather stations across the country, including Canberra, Launceston, Kalgoorlie, Port Hedland, Mount Isa, Cobar, Moree, Tennant Creek, Mildura, Halls Creek, Cairns, Longreach, Mackay and Coffs Harbour.

The Bureau's station in Antarctica also will be affected.

Ms Persse said a trial of the computerised stations was run last year and was strongly criticised by staff who said it led to poorer information being collected.

The union wrote to the Minister for the Environment, Peter Garrett, last week asking him about the cuts but has not yet received a response.

The Bureau's acting deputy director of research and systems, Dr Sue Barrell, said there would be no overall cuts to jobs or pay but the staffing at weather stations would be "reconfigured".

"We have gaps over the workforce that means we can't operate programs as well as we'd like," Dr Barrell said.

She said the public would not notice any changes to the Bureau's forecasting services.

She hoped the quality of the data collected would not be affected.

"This is about making sure that we have a workforce that meets what we need, what the taxpayer needs and what data is needed," Dr Barrell said.