The Army Aboriginal Community Assistance Program (originally called a 'Project') is a program run by Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) and Australian Army to assist remote Indigenous Australian communities.
It is also known as the ATSIC/Army Community Assistance Program and also Exercise SAUNDERS, after Reg Saunders, the first Indigenous Australian to be commissioned as an officer in the Australian Army.
The program continued in 2005 with projects funded in the 2004 Australian federal budget.
[2] By the program's 10 year anniversary, over 100 houses had been constructed and more than $60 million spent on provision of infrastructure including "medical centres, airfields, roads, rubbish tips...[and] sewerage works".
[4] Personnel from NORFORCE and the various Land Warfare Centre detachments are also sometimes involved.