There's a WIKI page on Erikson air cranes and their deployment to Australia. By ship and by air.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_(helicopter) (Link may not work)
I remember a CFI telling me that the Air Cranes sat for a number of years at Essendon during fire seasons and didn't do anything at all after the government paid a hell of a lot of money to bring them over. It was only when Elvis became "famous" after being called in to save a few houses and it did a great job did the public fully embrace the Air Crane and things progressed from there. Very easy to get government funding when the public are calling for it. As you can see in 2006-2007 they brought 4 of them over.
Two other Aircranes, "Georgia Peach" (N154AC) and "Incredible Hulk" (N164AC), were rushed out from the U.S.A on board a Russian
Antonov An-124 air freighter to assist with the 2001-2002 Sydney bushfires following the successful deployment of "Elvis".
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Also used in the US Military or at least were as I understand.
Here's one taken at the Pima Air and Space museum in Tucson Arizona.
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