Bureau of Meteorology boss to step down after botched rollout of its $96million revamped website

By ASHLEY NICKEL, NEWS REPORTER, AUSTRALIA Published: 01:47, 20 May 2026 | Updated: 01:47, 20 May 2026 The man who oversaw the Bureau of Meteorology's highly contentious $96.5million website makeover has announced he will step down. Peter Stone will leave the Bureau next month after almost a decade with the national forecaster, Crikey reports. The Bureau confirmed Dr Stone, the chief customer officer and group executive of business solutions, had 'made the decision to retire'. He briefly acted as the Bureau's chief executive in October last year, when the agency first launched its remodelled website.  The new design triggered a massive wave of criticism from Aussies who claimed the layout, especially of the rain radar, was difficult to navigate.  The previous rain radar's colour scheme was brought back and Dr Stone promised further website improvements were on the way.  '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,' Dr Stone said at the time. 'So, more changes are in the pipeline.' Peter Stone (above) will retire from the Bureau of Meteorology by the end of June Stuart Minchin (above) will take over from Dr Stone in November The Bureau initially said the new website cost $4.1million but later revealed the real cost was closer to $96.5million.  It attributed the inflated cost to upgrading and testing its back-end systems. Most of the money went toward a $78million contract with Accenture that was originally slated at $31million but grew over nine extensions. The BOM's chief information and technology officer, Nichole Brinsmead, said the extent of the upgrades weren't initially understood.  'I do take umbrage, to some degree, in that I don't think these contracts were as badly managed as you make out,' she told a Senates hearing in 2025.  Stuart Minchinm took over the chief executive position in November.  No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.