OPERATION PLES DRAI PAPUA NEW GUINEA DROUGHT

THE PNG AND AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCES WORKING TOGETHER FOR THE PEOPLE OF PNG DURING THE 1997 – 1998 DROUGHT

MOVING THE RELIEF SUPPLIES

OPERATION SIERRA, the delivery of food aid to Papua New Guinea reached a milestone this week (11 December) with the shipment, by air, of the 1000th tonne of emergency supplies.

The 150 strong Australian Defence Force contingent, working in conjunction with the Papua New Guinea Defence Force, is on target to deliver the planned 650 tonnes per month to 28 remote locations throughout five drought and frost affected provinces.

Before final delivery of the food is made by Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters and C-130 Hercules and DH-4C Caribou fixed wing aircraft, every kilogram of rice and flour and every litre of cooking oil has to ordered and loaded by the Mobile Air Terminal Unit (MATU).

The air component commander of OPERATION SIERRA, Wing Commander DAVE RICHARDS said MATU, a part of 301 Air Base Wing at Amberley is a vital part of the operation. "They're crucial to the operation, without them we wouldn't move. They're the key to OPERATION SIERRA on the ground," he said.

For phase two of the operation, MATU 2 deployed seven personnel to PNG. Two, including Flying Officer ROBYN HEEP, the Officer in Charge (OIC) are working out of Port Moresby, the other five are in Madang.

On a daily basis Flying Officer Heep receives instructions from AusAID (Australian Agency for International Development) regarding the allocation and distribution of food aid. "AusAID tells me how much aid has to be delivered and where it has to go," she said, "I then order the food, and when it arrives we then get it ready for delivery," FLGOFFR Heep added. Her working day ends with the compilation of statistics.

All the relief supplies are distributed from Port Moresby. If they are being sent to Madang they are packed onto pallets which will then be loaded straight onto a C-130 Hercules by forklift, however if the delivery is to Woitape or Tapini the supplies are transported by Caribou which means every bag of rice, flour and cooking oil has to be loaded by hand.

FLGOFFR Heep and Leading AirCraftsman (LAC) STEVE ALLAN have been working an average 12 hour day with 16 hour days not uncommon. The MATU is also responsible for loading the aircraft, a big job for two people considering about 200 tonnes of aid will be delivered to Central Province. FLGOFFR Heep said they've been helped greatly by the ground crews from both 35 and 38 squadrons. "They've been excellent," she said, "and so too have the PNGDF personnel. The weather is very hot and humid, especially in the aircraft, and while the job has been very physical, it's also been very rewarding," she added.

FLGOFFR Heep said the five personnel in Madang, Sergeant Geoff Bird, Corporal Kerry Falconer, LAC Nigel Coupland, LAC Dave Elliott and LAC Malcolm White have handled 354 tonnes of aid destined for Western Province.

While there has been a very slight improvement in the weather conditions in some areas with reports of rain, OPERATION SIERRA will last at least till March next year, and with the delivery target of 650 tonnes per month, (8 kgs of rice, 2 kgs of flour and 1 litre of cooking oil per person per month) the Mobile Air Transport Unit will continue to be an important cog in the relief wheel. More than 60,000 people are depending on the supplies being delivered each month.

By: Captain Grant King - December 13 ,1997

Moving the Relief Supplies Picture Gallery.