The RAAF's first strategic airlifter, the Hercules has frequently been used to deliver disaster relief in Australia and the Pacific region, as well as to support military deployments overseas.

Following further consideration of the options after their return to Australia, in early 1955 the members of the mission unanimously recommended that Hercules be procured, as the other two types did not meet some of the most important elements of the requirement.

[6] The Hercules represented a huge improvement over the C-47 in payload, range, speed and manoeuvrability, as well as offering cabin pressurisation, short-takeoff-and-landing capability, and bulk loading and despatch via its rear cargo door.

The Government expressed concern over the price, at one stage proposing the purchase of only three aircraft, but eventually the Air Force won approval for the twelve that it wanted.

Described by the official history of the post-war RAAF as second only to the General Dynamics F-111C as the "most significant" acquisition by the Air Force, the Hercules gave the Australian military its first strategic airlift capability, which in years to come would provide a "lifeline" for deployments to Malaya, Vietnam, and other parts of Southeast Asia.

[10] A specialist crew member was needed to make weight-and-balance calculations and oversee loading and despatch for the Hercules' 20-tonne freight capacity (compared to three-and-a-half tonnes in a Dakota) and for its range of cargo-delivery systems.

This task demonstrated that the RAAF had insufficient long-ranged transport aircraft to simultaneously support overseas deployments and meet the force's domestic requirements in Australia.

[11] In contrast to the concerns raised by the government over the cost of purchasing the C-130As, this expansion of the Hercules force gained ready agreement, due in no small part to the benefits for the armed services, particularly the Australian Army, demonstrated by the first twelve aircraft.

[21][25] The aircraft initially suffered from serious mechanical and software problems as well as a shortage of spare parts, and were assessed as "experiencing significant operational shortfalls" in a 2002 Australian National Audit Office report.

[26][27] The Defence Science and Technology Organisation undertook considerable research into the C-130J design and developed improvements to the aircraft that addressed problems with excessive vibration.

[33] In 2019 the RAAF was reported to be considering fitting Litening targeting pods to Hercules to improve crew situational awareness and allow aircraft to collect imagery as part of transport flights.

[46] The RAAF's twelve C-130As were picked up by their newly trained Australian pilots from the Lockheed factory at Dobbins Air Force Base, Georgia, and ferried to Australia in three groups between December 1958 and March 1959.

[12] These flights primarily involved transporting cargo, as Chief of the Air Staff Frederick Scherger directed in 1959 that the RAAF would continue to rely on chartered civil airliners to move military personnel on the grounds that these aircraft were better suited to the task and in wartime all the C-130s would be needed to supply troops near the front lines.

[49] The official history of the post-war Air Force described the Hercules as "probably the biggest step-up in aircraft capabilities" the RAAF had ever received, considering it roughly four times as effective as the Dakota, taking into account the improvements in payload, range, and speed.

[56] In 1964, the first two Dassault Mirage III fighters to be assembled in Australia were flown in pieces from France to the Government Aircraft Factories at Avalon, Victoria, by RAAF Hercules.

Following the deployment of the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment to South Vietnam in early 1965, the RAAF began fortnightly C-130 flights into the country from June that year.

These flights were initially conducted as part of the regular courier service, and the patients and RAAF nurses had to endure uncomfortable conditions as the aircraft had only rudimentary facilities for personnel on stretchers.

Although the operation was generally successful, only C-130Es were assigned to this task from May 1967 after an article criticising the use of noisy C-130As to transport wounded personnel was published in The Medical Journal of Australia.

After South Vietnamese soldiers were reported to have been transported alongside civilians, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam directed that the Hercules were to only carry humanitarian cargo.

The aircraft transported cargo between Thailand, Butterworth, Hong Kong and Singapore; by the time this mission ended in early June, the two Hercules had conducted 91 sorties for the UN.

They also became well known in the Southern Pacific after being called on for relief following natural disasters, including tsunami in New Guinea, cyclones in the Solomon Islands and Tonga, and fires and floods in Australia.

37 Squadron transported the Popemobiles during John Paul II's tour of Australia; its other unusual cargoes have included a Murray Grey stud bull presented to the Chinese Government in 1973, kangaroos and sheep for Malaysia, and archaeological exhibits from China.

[88] A proposal to deploy some of the Hercules as part of Australia's contribution to the ensuing Gulf War was also rejected in late 1990 as the aircraft had to be held in reserve in case fighting on the Pacific island of Bougainville worsened and required an evacuation operation.

Although these courier flights had been one of the main tasks assigned to the Hercules force since the type's introduction, the reduction in commercial airfares during the late 1990s rendered them unnecessary.

[105] On 19 September a C-130 dropped a Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) team near the East Timorese capital of Dili ahead of the arrival of the main INTERFET force the next day.

[113] During the invasion the Hercules supported SAS operations in western Iraq, one being the first Coalition aircraft to land at Al Asad Airbase after it was secured by special forces personnel on 12 April.

[115] A rotating detachment of three Hercules was subsequently maintained in the Middle East to support the ongoing Australian contribution to the War in Afghanistan, as well as the forces stationed in Iraq.

36 Squadron Hercules took part in Operation Sumatra Assist in the wake of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami; the aircraft were initially used to fly supplies into the badly damaged city of Banda Aceh.

[120] Hercules flew Australian forces into East Timor during May 2006 after the government of that country requested assistance to quell a military mutiny and widespread violence.

[121] In July that year one of the C-130s deployed to the Middle East was sent to Cyprus, where it picked up Australians who had been evacuated from Lebanon following Israeli air raids and flew them to Turkey.