Twenty years on, the tsunami recovery continues
by SANDI MILLER
10th February 2025
ON BOXING Day 2004 the Indian Ocean region experienced one of the deadliest disasters in recorded history.
A 9.1 magnitude eruption caused waves up to 30 metres high to crash violently into a swathe of countries encircling the region.
The Boxing Day Tsunami killed about 230,000 and displaced many more.
The tragedy prompted a huge international emergency response.
In the immediate aftermath, the Australian civil response saw tens of millions of dollars of relief funding pour into the region, as well as practical assistance from Australia’s military.
Army Engineer Don Hughes, now a Warrandyte local, was deployed to the recovery effort and was on the ground in Banda Aceh, providing practical support to those who had lost everything.
Don Hughes was part of the team deployed to Sumatra by Tasmanian Environmental Services to assist in restoring sanitation.
His team leader, Rob Patterson, provides a vivid account:
“The initial focus for the team was on providing basic sanitation facilities in a village some 80 kilometres from Banda Aceh.
A traditional fishing village, the fishermen were all at sea when the Tsunami struck.
They all survived as they were well out to sea away from the Tsunami.
The Tsunami struck the village on a Sunday morning.
The women and children were mostly on the beach.
Some 15 minutes before the Tsunami struck, the sea waters suddenly receded.
Fish were stranded and trapped in rock pools and shallows, which encouraged the villagers to rush into the tide pools to gather the fish.
The village owned six elephants that provided work as required.
When the waters receded, these elephants had a sixth sense of the impending danger. The elephants broke their chains and headed for higher ground.
Miraculously, on their way to higher ground two of the elephants seized a child each to take them to safety. The children’s screams however, alerted their mothers who thought the elephants had gone mad.
Sixteen women and children chased the elephants onto higher ground before the 10-metre Tsunami struck the shore.
Sadly, the village population after the Tsunami was the 700 fishermen who had been at sea, and only the 16 women and children saved by the elephants.
The rest had perished!”
With the village decimated and traumatised, international aid agencies had erected temporary tented accommodation and basic (long-drop) pit toilet facilities.
These measures were rapidly needing an upgrade.
Part of the solution required to prevent fly-borne disease from long-drop toilets, was to install a lightweight, easily constructed, septic-tank system.
Utilising sewerage grade liners and basic plumbing fittings it replicated the function of a standard Australian septic tank based on the age old anaerobic process.
An Australian standard ground absorption trench completed the treatment.
This simply installed Field Septic Tank system broke down the effluent safely and therefore protected the village from further disease.
Instinctively, the people of the village could see the benefit and set about installing their new sanitation facilities. Young Indonesian civil engineering students helped supervise, following the age-old humanitarian assistance adage: “do not just give a person a fish – teach them how to fish!”
It became a restorative exercise in rebuilding a community.
Ride for recovery
Now commemorating the 20th anniversary of this devastating event, the recovery phase of this disaster continues. Around 470 kilometres of Indian Ocean separates the devastated towns of Banda Aceh and Khao Lak, but the impact of the wave was of a similar scale.
Over 4,000 people were killed in Khao Lak alone.
Warrandyte resident, Nicola Hart, has contributed to the ongoing recovery by participating in the Hands Across the Water 800km bike ride over eight days, with 48 riders from Australia, New Zealand, UK, Italy and Dubai, from the sleepy resort town of Petchaburi to Khao Lak in January.
She said riding into the Baan Tharn Namchai home there was a mix of emotions.
This home was the first built following the devastating Boxing Day Tsunami.
It was a response from Australian Peter Baines, who was in Thailand identifying bodies when he witnessed 32 Thai orphans sheltering in a tent.
Nicola recounted that these children survived the initial Tsunami, but unlike adults, did not know how to begin to find the assistance they desperately needed.
So Peter began Hands Across the Water to give them that immediate help, but quickly realised there was an ongoing need for children who either had no family, or had families who could not afford to provide for them.
Hands Across the Water “gives children a life of choice, rather than chance” and currently supports 350 children that have no known carers, would otherwise be forced into exploitative employment options and would not have the chance to be educated.
Nicola sponsors two children who live in one of the Hands’ homes.
She said she decided to support Hands Across the Water after hearing about a young girl who had sought refuge with Hands after her older sister was sold into prostitution by her parents – for $10 – fearing her fate would be the same.
Nicola said the Ride to Provide wasn’t just a cycling event, it was a celebration of two decades of unwavering commitment to transforming the lives of children in need.
“It was an opportunity to honour the past, embrace the present and look ahead to a future filled with hope and happiness.
We were honoured to be joined on the ride by three survivors of the Tsunami and two other riders who were involved in the relief efforts following the Tsunami.”
If you wish to donate to Nicola’s fundraising effort visit handsacrossthewater.org.au/fundraisers/nicolahart/rtp-20th.
All donations of $2 or more are 100 per cent tax deductible.
