They were on the scene within hours of Tuesday's devastating car bomb outside the five-star JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta. Dressed in blue boiler suits and wraparound sunglasses, a dozen Australian police officers picked their way through the twisted metal, mangled body parts and shattered glass that littered the hotel's horseshoe-shaped forecourt.
Along with their Indonesian counterparts, they began the painstaking task of looking for clues as to who detonated the bomb that killed 10 people and injured about 140 others.
Four years ago such co-operation would have been unthinkable. Not only did Indonesia have a deep distrust of Australia, arising from Canberra's intervention in the bloody separatist conflict in East Timor, it denied it had a terrorist problem at all.
Facing a common terrorist enemy, Australia and Indonesia, despite lingering cultural, political and historical differences, have edged closer together. The Australian police officers who descended on the Marriott so swiftly were already in Jakarta as part of a separate, unspecified investigation into terrorist-related activities.
There are controversial plans to resume joint exercises with Indonesia's notorious Kopassus special forces, blamed for orchestrating the slaughter of hundreds of civilians in East Timor.
The military, strategic and intelligence ties are only likely to grow.
'This is a time to strengthen, not weaken, our links with Indonesia,' Australian Prime Minister John Howard said on Thursday. 'This is a time to work as closely as possible with the Indonesian authorities and the Indonesian people.'