Embrace: LCpl Heidi Turnbull says thank you to Indonesian nurses.

Photo by AB Phillip Cullinan, 1JPAU

In safe hands
CA accepts ARH into Army service on time

By Capt Kate Noble

INDONESIANS and ADF personnel are embracing the handover of the Australian military’s humanitarian operations in the Indonesian province of Aceh.

The shift from the life-saving phase to the reconstruction phase has resulted in the drawing down of a number of Army assets deployed on Op Sumatra Assist.

Recent developments include the handover of the Anzac Field Hospital’s responsibility for the infectious diseases ward and the surgical ward of the Zainal Abidin General Hospital to the Indonesian hospital administration.

Army engineers have handed over the operation of their water purification site in the city centre to the Red Cross, with the rest of the engineer component in Banda Aceh expected to leave soon pending a decision by the Australian Government.

The Iroquois helicopters of A Sqn 5 Avn Regt will also return to Australia following improvements in the ability to deliver stores to the west coast of Aceh by road and sea.

Lt-Col Georgina Whelan, CO Anzac Field Hospital, said attempts by the Indonesian hospital administration to get the hospital back to normal had been strongly supported by the staff.

Post-tsunami recovery in safe hands

“Our intent throughout our deployment has been to build the hospital’s long-term capability, not come in and fill a short-term gap that would remain after we left,” Lt-Col Whelan said.

“We’ve worked very closely with the hospital administration from the outset.

One of the most valuable areas we’ve worked on from a long-term perspective is the skill-share program here.

“That’s involved putting some of our staff on the Indonesian and Singaporean wards as well as involving some of the Indonesian doctors and nurses in our surgical ward.”

For the engineers, the drawdown has given them a chance to appreciate what they have achieved to date.

Lt-Col Ian Cumming, CO Engineer Group, said that as a small part of the larger task, the engineers had done an enormous amount of good.

“It’s also been good to have some of our own tasks to work on where we’ve been able to see the job through from start to finish,” he said.

“For example, the sanitation work we’ve done in some of the [displaced persons] camps and more recently, the dive recovery of a number of a couple of submerged boats in Banda Aceh have been pretty rewarding tasks.”

Brigadier Dave Chalmers, Commander of Joint Task Force 629, said there would be continued reduction of the force.

“We’re working very closely with the Indonesian authorities to ensure that as we remove force elements, those gaps are being replaced by their own capabilities or by non-government organisations,” Brig Chalmers said.