After starting school at Gulgong, Harley Wood  then attended school at Coolah where in 1922 at the age of 11 years he passed his Qualifying  Certificate  which enabled him to attend a high school.   

His family arranged for him to enrol at the nearest suitable high school which was at Mudgee. There he boarded with a family called Atkinson, who had three children, one being in the same class as Harley. At the Mudgee High School, was a fellow pupil Fred Hall who later became a solicitor at Condobolin.  

Both became interested in star gazing.  They made telescopes using zinc tubes and bought lenses. To earn money for the telescopes Harley went around Mudgee selling Granny Smith apples and pears.

 Any profit bought him books about astronomy.  At the age of 14 years he had read all the astronomy books in the Mudgee School of Arts and the Mudgee High  School library.

Harley is remembered at the Mudgee High School for the highest mark in the 1928  Higher School Leaving Certificate.  His name was placed on the school honour board as Dux and school captain.  For many years the school granted an annual Harley Wood Scholarship.

For his success in his final school examination Harley was granted a State Bursary  to the University of Sydney and a Scholarship at Wesley College. 

He graduated Bachelor of Science with first class honours in Mathematics and Physics in 1933. One year later he was awarded a Master of Science.      

In 1936 he was appointed as Assistant Astronomer at the Sydney Observatory. Seven years later he was classified the Government Astronomer. In the same year 1943 he was appointed as Director of the  Sydney Observatory, a position he held until 1974.

During his time at the Sydney Observatory Harley was engaged on the preparation of the Astrographic  Catalogue,  a mammoth internal  project to photograph the whole sky.  Hs work in the wider context of the Australian and international community was prolific.  

He was heavily involved in the popularisation of astronomy  and making it available to everyone.  In particular he was at the forefront of moves to draw Australian

astronomers together into a professional organisation.   For recognition of this work  he became the Foundation President of the Astronomical Society of Australia Inc.

Harley was one of the early movers that initiated a search for a suitable country site in Australia for a large astronomical telescope.  

The move finally resulted in the establishment of the Anglo-Australian Telescope at Siding Spring Mountain near Coonabarabran.   

He travelled to many potential sites in New South Wales with astronomers  from the Unites States  and the Mount Stromlo Observatory of Canberra. 

At  the same time he was hoping to find  a desirable location of a country station for the Sydney Observatory which was severely handicapped by its location in a large city, viz., Sydney, not far from the extensive lighting of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.    

Although there have been few fallen meteor finds Harley was always anxious to follow up possible reliable reports of their landings. 

In July 1952, a meteor was believed to have landed in or burnt out over the state forests in the Coolah Tops.  Harley Wood, a radio-physicist and a geography professor were soon in the area. 

Much to Harley’s disappointment neither the meteor not its crater could be found.

In 1936 Harley married Una Johnson. During the wartime the young married couple lived and raised their two children, in  the accommodation provided in the Sydney Observatory heritage building. 

Harley died on June 26, 1984, at Kenthurst,  Sydney, age 73 years.

-by Roy Cameron  OAM