Locals help to unload an Australian Navy Sea King helicopter from HMAS Kanimbla which carried relief supplies of rice, water and tents to the isolated village of Aluebata, Aceh Province, 145 kilometres down the coast from Banda Aceh.
Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel are assisting Indonesian Government authorities as part of the Australian Government program of humanitarian relief following the Boxing Day tsunami, The ADF has been working in support of tsunami disaster relief in Indonesia’s North Sumatra and Aceh Provinces since 28 December 2004.
Relief assistance provided by Australia is part of a co-operative effort involving the ADF, DFAT (AusAID) and Emergency Management Australia. Water, tentage, medical supplies, blankets, and other emergency provisions, and logistical support have been provided. In the tsunami-devastated provincial capital of Banda Aceh, the ADF have set up a water purification plant and have established the Anzac Field Hospital, a field hospital operated jointly by medical personnel of the ADF and the New Zealand Defence Force. The Australian Navy amphibious transport ship, HMAS Kanimbla, delivered a detachment of Australian Army Engineers an 13 January, and has taken up station as a floating support and logistics base for relief and reconstruction work.