It was a fuel supply issue. The helo's and crews were ready to go (and yes, there were Chinooks there) but there was not enough fuel was brought in for them to operate effectively. Same issue also applied to EMQ. A civilian helicopter company picked up the slack by flying in their own fuel. As far as I can tell, the problem occurred because the RAAF did not have enough transport assets available (so much for the inter-service crap bollocks on this thread, the RAAF is no better) and when some fuel did arrive, it was little more than the total capacity of one Black Hawk with jugs. Indeed, a civilian company was even chartered to supply a C-130 when the RAAF couldn't.