In 1942, the Prime Minister, Mr Curtin, commissioned Professor Eric Ashby and Dr James Vernon to report on the enlistment of scientific resources in the war report. They were authorised to inquire into and report upon:
a) the procedure adopted at present when scientific problems arise
   which are related to war activities and which are outside the
   scope of the scientific staff of the industry and the 
   government department concerned;
b) the proportion of these problems which require some 
   experimental investigation and the difficulty in finding 
   scientific men who can undertake such investigations;
c) the value to war industries and government departments of some 
   simple and and regular means of assigning such problems to 
   appropriate scientific men, in addition to the means existing 
   at present; and 
d) the extent to which scientific skill and equipment outside the 
   government service is being used in the war effort and the
   means whereby fuller use might be made of the scientific 
   resources (apart from training facilities) of universities, 
   research institutions and technical colleges.

They recommended that the government should form a scientific liaison bureau with an initial vote of 15,000 pounds. Its director, who they suggested might be nominated by the Executive Committee of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), should be directly responsible to the Minister in charge of the CSIR.
On 1 December 1942, the Bureau became an accomplished fact and Ashby was invited to become its director, a post which accepted without salary.

The functions of the Bureau as decided by the War Cabinet were:
a) to ensure that scientific problems which arise in the 
   Services, government departments and war industries are promptly 
   brought to the notice of suitable scientific men; and that, if 
   necessary, experimental work is carried out to solve these 
   problems;
b) to become familiar with the major facilities for scientific 
   work in government and non-government laboratories, so that 
   problems can be directed into the most appropriate channels; and 
   replication of effort can be minimised;
c) to supply contacts between men who encounter scientific problems 
   and men who can solve them, where these contacts are not already 
   established by existing committees, etc; 
d) to arrange, where no other channels exist, for cooperative work 
   between government and non-government scientific departments; and 
e) to promote, wherever possible, the application of scientific 
   work to war needs in the Services, government departments, and 
   war industries.

The director's powers were:
(i) authority to set up a staff consisting of liaison officers, and
    to have secretarial assistance;
(ii) authority to have officers in such cities as may be necessary; (iii) authority to spend funds on travelling and maintenance of 
      staff and of scientific men enlisted on war problems;
(iv) authority to draw on a trust fund to launch urgent scientific
     inquiries arising out of the war;
(v) authority to form a panel of non-government scientists, to
    establish contact with and to obtain information from government
    laboratories and government committees dealing with scientific
    problems;
(vi) authority to enlist the help of universities, technical
     colleges, non-government institutions and industries, and, where
     practicable, of government laboratories in the solution of
     technical problems arising out of the war;
(vii) direct access to a Cabinet Minister.

The Bureau appears to have been functionally separate from the CSIR (CA 486) and apparently reported directly to the Minister for War
Organization of Industry. This is subject to further research. The Bureau did not establish an information service and worked in close liaison with the Information Section of the CSIR, which had assumed the responsibility for scientific liaison between Australia, Britain and the United States.

By March 1943 the Bureau was fully organised in all States, with deputy directors in Sydney and Melbourne and honorary officers acting in a similar capacity in other State capitals and in Newcastle. Liaison with the army had been established through the appointment of a scientist with the rank of major who was attached to the Research Section of the Adjutant-General's Department; liaison was also established with the Departments of Supply and Shipping, Commerce and Agriculture, and War Organisation of Industry; also with the Munitions Supply Laboratories and the CSIR, and all organisations - universities, technical colleges and research institutes - possessing laboratory facilities.

Among its other activities the Bureau published a Directory of institutions equipped to undertake scientific research, and played a significant role in organising the study of 'tropic proofing' supplies and equipment.

In 1945 it was decided to amalgamate the Liaison Bureau with the former Information Section of the Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research (CA 486) and the combined body was to be known 
as the Scientific Liaison and Information Bureau. 
This is subject to further research.

Sources:
Federal Guide, 1943 p. 15
Committee of Review - Civil Staffing of Wartime Achivities;
Report on the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, 
10 July 1945, p. 3
P.D. Mellor, The Role of Science and Industry, Australian
War Memorial, Canberra, 1958, pp. 61-65
 

Historical agency address
T&G Building, 147 Collins Street, Melbourne