Deployment As the scope of the disaster became known, the RAN began to assemble a task force under the command of
Flag Officer Commanding Australian Fleet, Rear Admiral
David_Wells_(admiral). All personnel on annual leave were recalled; the vast majority responding before their ship sailed, while ships' companies were filled out by volunteers from shore bases and the ships unable to sail. Hundreds of tons of relief stores were embarked for transport. The first RAN units to arrive in Darwin were two
HS 748 aircraft from
851 Squadron RAN on 26 December; one carrying
Red Cross members and
blood transfusion equipment, the other transporting
Clearance Diving Team 1 (CDT1). That day, HMA Ships and departed from
Brisbane, sailed from Cairns, while (with Rear Admiral Wells aboard), , and left Sydney. On 27 December, , , , and left Sydney, while and sailed from Brisbane. The last ship, , left Brisbane on 2 January. Between the 13 ships, 3,000 personnel were deployed on the operation. The survey ship
Flinders and the destroyer
Brisbane were the first ships to arrive in Darwin, on 31 December.
Flinders was tasked with
surveying the harbour to work out the position of wrecks and the safest areas for the other RAN ships to anchor, while
Brisbane established contact with the Emergency Services Organisation Committee running relief efforts in Darwin. A further eight ships arrived between 1 and 4 January, and
Brunei,
Tarakan, and
Wewak reached Darwin on 13 January. Four
S-2 Tracker aircraft were placed on standby to fly to Darwin, but were later stood down. It was also planned to send the British submarine , which was on loan to the
RAN Submarine Squadron, for use as a power station, but there were no power adaption facilities in Darwin suitable for connecting
Odins two diesel generators to the electricity grid.
Work performed The initial RAN relief which was limited to
search and rescue in the area of Darwin Harbour and
Melville Island, which was hindered by the lack of reliable communications. As the ships of the task force arrived, naval working parties were assigned to clear the suburbs of
Nightcliff,
Rapid Creek, and
Casuarina. From 1 to 30 January, naval personnel spent 17,979-man days ashore, with up to 1,200 personnel ashore at any time. They cleared and restored 1,593 properties, along with schools and government buildings, disposed of spoiled food, installed generators, and repaired electrical networks. Other sailors were involved in more unusual jobs, some working parties were tasked with saving rare plants from the
Darwin Botanic Gardens, while one sailor filled in at a radio station as a disc jockey. CDT1 inspected vessels in the harbour for damage, searched for sunken ships, and cleared the waters around the wharves at Stokes Hill and Fort Hill wharves. After the main task force arrived, the divers focused on recovering the wrecked patrol boat
Arrow. Nine
Westland Wessex helicopters embarked aboard
Melbourne and
Stalwart transported 7,832 passengers and of supplies. The two HS 748s were used to shuttle supplies north and survivors south. During their 14 return flights to Darwin, they carried 485 passengers and of freight. Some of the evacuees were temporarily housed in naval bases around Sydney and Brisbane.
Departure The RAN ships began a staggered withdrawal from 7 January. Operation Navy Help Darwin was concluded on 30 January 1975, when command of the relief effort was handed over to the Commandant of the
Australian Army's 7th Military District with
Brisbane and
Stalwart sailing for home the next day. ==Aftermath==