An LCM8 landing craft deploys Australian Army engineering equipment on the shore of Banda Aceh to be used in the cleanup of the devastated town. Navy hydrographers and clearance divers were instrumental in finding a safe place to land.

Photo: ABPH Phillip Cullinan

By CPL Cameron Jamieson

There’s a major problem planning coastal operations in the Banda Aceh area.

Not only was the coast destroyed by the impact of the Boxing Day tsunami, the initial earthquake moved the entire landmass of the region nearly 40m towards the east in a matter of moments.

Into this nightmare of coastal resculpturing LCDR Richard Westoby has entered.

A former British Royal Marine officer, who recently transferred to the Royal Australian Navy, LCDR Westoby has used his wealth of amphibious operations experience to help plan and conduct the movement of the Army engineers on HMAS Kanimbla from Darwin to Banda Aceh.

Speaking from the Headquarters of Combined Joint Task Force 629, located in Medan, Northern Sumatra, LCDR Westoby recalled how the tsunami had almost made it impossible to bring landing craft ashore in Banda Aceh, but persistence and dedication to the task brought an unusual solution.

“Having seen the photographs and television, we knew the major ports had gone, the rivers had all been congested, and all the beaches had been swept away or the back-flow of water had made them incredibly shallow,” he said.

“We sent the Navy hydrographers in to see where we could get in, but they couldn’t find anywhere suitable. “There was the horror that we would have to move 30km down the coast.”

The dogged determination of the hydrographers, Navy clearance divers and the landing craft crews helped save the situation.

While the major canal that leads from the northeast of Banda Aceh into the sea had been damaged and blocked with debris, the Australians found a path to the damaged end of one the canal walls.

The damage allowed the landing craft to dock with the wall itself, and the engineers then turned the wall into a road so that the heavy equipment could be brought ashore, only three kilometres away from the engineer’s camp.

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