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NARRATOR: Television footage of the first of seven waves,
some measuring up to eight storeys high,
hitting the Indonesian province of Aceh
provides some perspective of the horror endured
by those in the path of the tsunami.
Buildings destroyed, people swept to their deaths,
livelihoods devastated,
basic services wiped out,
homes lost forever,
triggering the world's largest humanitarian exercise,
as Australia joined countries from across the globe
in a four-year reconstruction and rehabilitation effort
overseen by an Indonesian authority, the BRR.
Their plan - to build a better Aceh.
Housing had priority.
The tsunami had stripped homes away from over 500,000 Acehnese -
roughly equivalent to 120 average Australian suburbs.
Not mere replacements.
Better design and construction.
So, we built more stronger house
to...to anticipate the earthquake.
NARRATOR: Early criticism of the building effort
focused on the rate of progress,
but this exercise presented challenges previously unseen.
Entire land masses had disappeared.
Imagine giant waves hitting Australia's east coast
and travelling as far as the Great Dividing Range.
Right here, the receding waters tore off a piece of land
12 kilometres long and a kilometre wide
out to sea, taking an entire village -
a pattern repeated along most of the coast.
Originally is over there,
is one kilometre from where I am sitting now.
NARRATOR: An enormous remapping exercise became necessary
before a brick could be laid.
MAN: Even land boundaries didn't exist,
so you had donors saying,
"OK, we recognise the need to build an emergency house, but where?"
NARRATOR: Large portions of a coastal highway
are still under construction.
Most of the old road is beneath the ocean to the west.
Nevertheless, progress has been quite extraordinary.
The big coastal towns of Meulaboh and Calang
have been rebuilt further inland,
both destroyed by the tsunami.
40,000 residents lost their lives.
Today, there is little evidence of the tragedy.
New homes across the province stand out like beacons.
MAN: The infrastructure in Aceh is much better.
Housing sectors is also the area where...where it's much better now.
NARRATOR: Banda Aceh is a thriving city once again,
with bustling new marketplaces,
a modern ferry terminal, enabling more accessible inter-island travel.
Brand-new hospitals replaced those destroyed.
There are permanent reminders of the sheer power of the tsunami.
This 63-metre barge and power generator
was swept from the harbour three kilometres inland.
It remains in place mid-suburbia,
as does a fishing boat perched on top of a two-storey house,
a safe haven for this man and 53 others on Boxing Day 2005,
their means of escape from the rising waters.
This boat saved our lives.
NARRATOR: But the people of Aceh
quite clearly want to put the events of that day behind them.
When the reconstruction authority set about rebuilding after the tsunami,
their plan was to build a better Aceh -
better schools, better houses and better hospitals -
and they appear to have done that.
But best of all, according to the people here,
is an end to 30 years of civil conflict.
What they have now is precious peace.
To understand this mindset,
it's important also to understand life in the province
during the conflict between members of the Free Aceh Movement
and the Indonesian military -
three decades of war and all its horrors.
MAN: We were living in fear.
We were living in...uncertainty.
NARRATOR: The tsunami changed all of that.
People had other matters to attend to, and the fighting stopped.
NARRATOR: Talks aimed at finding an end to the conflict
had already begun,
but it was the tsunami that provided the catalyst
in a province where the borders had been closed to the outside world
for 30 years.
The tsunami has brought the peace process to Aceh.
It has brought opportunity
for international community to assist this place, also.
NARRATOR: A peace providing such relief,
they're now calling the tsunami a gift from God -
an attitude best summed up by one who lost 10 family members.
But then, life must go on.
And...and you have to start your life again.
NARRATOR: And that's exactly what these incredibly resilient people
are doing.
Australians have assisted the reconstruction authority
to hand over a much better Aceh.
The number of dollars spent will be forgotten in time.
But what price peace?
Living in peace and stability is priceless.