Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) executive Peter Stone, who managed the recent website overhaul, is set to leave his role at the end of June, Crikey reports.
The BOM confirmed his departure on Tuesday, saying Stone had “made the decision to retire”.
Stone is currently is the bureau’s chief customer officer and group executive of business solutions. But it was during his short tenure as chief executive in October 2025 that he attracted controversy.
As the BOM launched its costly – reportedly $96m – revamped website, people noted changes to its rain radar map, which made place names difficult to read.
In the widespread backlash by users, the previous colour scheme on the rain radar and weather map was restored.
Stone said at the time, “We will continue to assess options for further updates and improvements at the same time as pushing on with our efforts to help the community become more familiar with the website.”
In December 2025, Mediaweek reported that the BOM chief executive Stuart Minchin told the ABC: “We’ve heard a significant amount of feedback about the new rain radar and weather map.
“We have added a quick link button from the home page, increased the visibility of the map location pin and made it easier to customise the map.”
The refresh also tightened how warnings are displayed, using yellow and grey indicators to show whether alerts are active or have been recently cancelled.
With an average of two million visits a day, the BOM website remains one of the country’s most heavily visited government services – and one of the most scrutinised.
Since the original revamp, the agency has been inundated with more than 400,000 pieces of feedback as Australians tried to navigate the revamped radar, temperature pages and warnings.
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BOM $96m website overhaul
The ABC reports that “Much of the cost can be attributed to the $78 million contract signed with technology company Accenture, which initially started as a $31 million contract and grew across nine extensions.”
The cost of the revamp attracted national attention.
Former radio host Kyle Sandilands even quipped on his show: “Why didn’t they just go to GoDaddy? You can make a website for $30.”
Top image: Peter Stone. Image: Instagram