Richard Harris | |
|---|---|
 Harris in 2024 | |
| Lieutenant Governor of South Australia | |
| Assumed office 9 February 2024 | |
| Governor | Frances Adamson |
| Preceded by | James Muecke |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Richard James Dunbar Harris |
| Known for | Tham Luang cave rescue |
| Awards | Full list |
| Website | Government website |
| Medical career | |
| Profession | Anaesthetist |
| Sub-specialties | Medical retrieval |
Richard James Dunbar "Harry" HarrisSC, OAM,PBh (GCT) is an Australiananaesthetist andcave diver who has served as theLieutenant Governor of South Australia since 2024. Harris is best known for having played a crucial role in theTham Luang cave rescue in Thailand in 2018. He hasdived to 245m (804 ft) and is the first person known to have breathed hydrogen on arebreather. Harris was awarded 2019Australian of the Year along with his dive partnerCraig Challen.
Richard James Dunbar Harris[citation needed] was nicknamed "Harry".[1]
After completing school atSt Peter's College inAdelaide,South Australia, Harris completed aBachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery atFlinders University in 1988. He subsequently completed anaesthetics training in the United Kingdom and New Zealand.[2][3]
Harris has worked on medical assistance teams innatural disasters in the Pacific region and taken part inAustralian Aid missions toVanuatu. He worked as an aeromedical consultant and anaesthetist for theSouth Australian Ambulance Service's medical retrieval service beginning in 2012.[2][3][4]
He retired as an anaesthetist in 2022.[4]
Harris is a cave diver with over 30 years of experience and dives with the Wetmules team. Harris's cave diving experiences include leading a team of Australian divers to record depths of 192, 221 and 245 m (630, 725 and 804 ft) in 2011, 2012, and 2020 respectively[5] whilst searching for the source of New Zealand'sPearse River: this mission was filmed forNational Geographic. In 2011, Harris was requested by theSouth Australian Police to participate in the recovery of the body of his friendAgnes Milowka, who had died whilst exploring a cave nearTantanoola in the south east ofSouth Australia.[6][7] Harris is listed as the international regional coordinator for Australia for the International Underwater Cave Rescue and Recovery organization.[8]
In 2023, Harris conducted a dive to 230 m (750 ft) while using hydrogen as a breathing gas on a rebreather.[9] While hydrogen had previously been tested as a breathing gas, this was the first known case of it being used on a rebreather.
In June 2018 Harris was about to depart on a cave diving holiday to theNullarbor Plain when he and dive partnerCraig Challen were requested by the Thai government, on the advice of British cave diving experts attempting to rescue twelve Thai children and their soccer coach who weretrapped in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave system, to provide assistance with the rescue efforts.[3][10]
Harris' efforts throughout the rescue have been described as essential; he conducted a medical assessment of all of the trapped boys. At the 18 July press conference, it was revealed that the soccer team decided as a group that the boys who lived the farthest away should leave first, so they could ride their bikes home.[11]
To allow the rescue to occur, Harris developed a plan to keep the boys anaesthetised withketamine while spontaneously breathing through full face masks. This was to ensure they did not panic during the long extrication through underwater caves, which would have endangered both the rescue scuba divers and the boys. While one source states that Harris was the last rescuer to leave the cave,[2] this is not correct according to Harris's own detailed account of the rescue.[12]: 275–276
On 5 November 2019 Harris and Challen released the bookAgainst All Odds chronicling their participation in the rescue of the boys from the Tham Luang Cave. In the book they corrected some of the inaccuracies in the media regarding the rescue. Harris stated that he did not pick the order that the boys would leave the cave, and that the boys decided that amongst themselves based on the distance each boy lived from the cave, as they thought they had to cycle back home. He also said the boys were fully unconscious as they were carried through the flooded cave, as he had given each boy two intramuscular injections in the thigh:ketamine to sedate them, andatropine to suppress saliva production to stop choking.[13]
On 25 January 2024, Harris was appointed as the Lieutenant Governor of South Australia.[14] He was sworn in on 9 February 2024 by GovernorFrances Adamson.[15]
In 2009 Harris was awarded the "Outstanding Achievement" award at the Australian technical diving conference Oztek, to mark his exceptional contributions to cave diving exploration, in 2017 he was awarded the "Australasian Technical Diver of the Year" at Oztek.[16][17]
On 24 July 2018 Harris, along with Challen, was awarded theStar of Courage (SC) andMedal of the Order of Australia (OAM) by theGovernor-General of Australia.[18] On 7 September 2018 theKing of Thailand appointed Harris as aKnight Grand Cross (First Class) of the Most Admirable Order of the Direkgunabhorn.[19]
OnAustralia Day 2019, Harris was announced as the joint 2019Australian of the Year with Challen.[20]
Jennifer Peedom's feature documentary about Harris, titledDeeper, is released in Australian cinemas on 30 October 2025.[1]
Harris has published two children's picture books, based on his family's pet dog:
