De Havilland (Canada) DHC-4 Caribou A4-140

The de Havilland Canada (DHC) Caribou is a cargo aircraft with short take off and landing capability. It is a high wing monoplane, with two Pratt and Whitney twin wasp radial engines. It had a crew of three, and a payload of up to 32 troops. The aircraft was the workhorse of the Australian military for more than forty years. Its main operational role was in support of the Australian Army. Although it is slow and noisy, the Caribou was a versatile transport aircraft, capable of short take-offs and landings on unprepared runways. Its rear-opening ramp doors allow personnel and cargo to be unloaded quickly.

The Caribou was ordered in the early 1960s to replace the reliable, though aging, Dakota aircraft.

The RAAF received its first Caribous in May in February 1964 when the first batch of eighteen aircraft was handed over at the DHC plant at Downsville, near Toronto. The aircraft were then flown from Canada to Australia. In July 1964 Caribous being ferried from Canada to Australia were diverted to Butterworth, Malaysia, where they became the basis of RAAF, Transport Flight Vietnam (RTFV), which later became 35 Squadron. Further Caribous were delivered to Vietnam, while those that reached Australia went to 38 Squadron.

In addition to their work in Australia, from 1965 to 1975 RAAF Caribous were used in Papua New Guinea, and flew mercy flights to refugees in East Timor in 1975. Between 1975 and 1978 they operated with the United Nations Military Observer Group, supplying observation posts along the India/Pakistan border. More recently, the Caribous flew famine-relief operations to Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya in 1997, tsunami relief to Papua New Guinea in 1999, and were used in East Timor and the Solomon Islands.