Our People in NSW
Operation Padang Assist - Gabriel Siu
Every medical centre needs a pharmacist, and the Australian Defence Force (ADF) Primary Health Care Facility (PHCF) in Sungai Geringging, West Sumatra, is no different. Lieutenant (LT) Gabriel Siu is an Australian Army Pharmacist deployed on Operation Padang Assist to administer and distribute the pharmaceutical products in the deployed health care facility.
LT Siu was born in Singapore where he worked as a pharmacist before immigrating to Australia in 2007. Moving to Perth originally he worked at a hospital for a year in order to get a license to be a pharmacologist in Australia.
A previously serving member of the Singaporean Army, he decided to join the Australian Army in 2008.
“My interest is in the Army lifestyle,” LT Siu said.
“After previously being in the Army in Singapore, I like the adventure and stimulation of Army life.”
LT Siu does know a bit of Indonesian from growing up so close by in Singapore, but this is his first time in Indonesia and his first deployment with the Army.
“I love the deployment because I get to experience a different environment and culture,” she said.
“It makes your job meaningful to be putting my skills into practice here.”
LT Gabriel Siu is currently serving on Operation Padang Assist with the Australian Defence Force’s Joint Task Force 629. As part of the operation, Australian soldiers, sailors and airmen are working day and night to provide health care, purified water, and to deliver aid supplies to the people of Padang and the surrounding areas of West Sumatra in the wake of the devastating earthquakes that recently rocked the Indonesian province.