Richard James Dunbar Harris is an Australian anaesthetist and cave diver who has served as the Lieutenant Governor of South Australia since 2024. Harris is best known for having played a crucial role in the Tham Luang cave rescue. He has dived to 245m (804 ft) and is the first person known to have breathed hydrogen on a rebreather. Harris was awarded 2019 Australian of the Year along with his dive partner Craig Challen.

Education and medical career

After completing school at St Peter's College in

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

, Harris completed a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at

Flinders University Flinders University, established as The Flinders University of South Australia is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia, with a footprint extending across a number of locations in South Australia and ...

in 1988. He subsequently completed anaesthetics training in the United Kingdom and New Zealand. Harris has worked on medical assistance teams in natural disasters in the Pacific region and taken part in Australian Aid missions to

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

. He worked as an aeromedical consultant and anaesthetist for the South Australian Ambulance Service's medical retrieval service beginning in 2012, and he retired as an anaesthetist in 2022.

Cave diving

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 in 2011, 2012, and 2020 respectively whilst searching for the source of New Zealand's Pearse River: this mission was filmed for '' National Geographic''. In 2011, Harris was requested by the South Australian Police to participate in the recovery of the body of his friend Agnes Milowka, who had died whilst exploring a cave near Tantanoola in the south east of

. Harris is listed as the international regional coordinator for Australia for the International Underwater Cave Rescue and Recovery organization. In 2023, Harris conducted a dive to while using hydrogen as a breathing gas on a rebreather. While hydrogen had previously been tested as a breathing gas, this was the first known case of it being used on a rebreather.

Tham Luang cave rescue

In June 2018 Harris was about to depart on a cave diving holiday to the Nullarbor Plain when he and dive partner Craig 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 were trapped in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave system, to provide assistance with the rescue efforts. 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. To allow the rescue to occur, Harris developed a plan to keep the boys anaesthetised with

ketamine Ketamine is a cyclohexanone-derived general anesthetic and NMDA receptor antagonist with analgesic and hallucinogenic properties, used medically for anesthesia, depression, and pain management. Ketamine exists as its S- (esketamine) a ...

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, this is not correct according to Harris's own detailed account of the rescue. On 5 November 2019 Harris and Challen released the book ''Against 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:

to sedate them, and atropine to suppress saliva production to stop choking.

Lieutenant Governor of South Australia

On 25 January 2024, Harris was appointed as the Lieutenant Governor of South Australia. He was sworn in on 9 February 2024 by Governor

Frances Adamson Frances Jennifer Adamson (born 20 April 1961) is an Australian public servant and diplomat who is the 36th Governor of South Australia, in office since 7 October 2021. She previously served as Australian Ambassador to China from 2011 to 2015 a ...

Awards

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. On 24 July 2018 Harris, along with Challen, was awarded the Star of Courage (SC) and Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) by the Governor-General of Australia. On 7 September 2018 the

King of Thailand The monarchy of Thailand is the constitutional monarchy, constitutional form of government of Thailand (formerly ''Siam''). The king of Thailand (, historically, ''king of Siam''; ) is the head of state and head of the ruling Chakri dynasty. ...

appointed Harris as a Knight Grand Cross (First Class) of the Most Admirable Order of the Direkgunabhorn. On

Australia Day Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet and raising of the Flag of Great Britain, Union Flag of Great Britain by Arthur Phillip at Sydney Cove, a ...

2019, Harris was announced as the joint 2019 Australian of the Year with Challen.

Publications

* Harris has published two children's picture books, based on his family's pet dog: * *

References

External links

* '' National Geographic''
"Record Cave Dive Leaves Mystery"
published 3 May 2011.
Wet Mules homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Richard Australian anaesthetists Australian underwater divers Australian cavers Australian of the Year Award winners Cave diving explorers Flinders University alumni Richard Harris Lieutenant-governors of South Australia Living people Medical doctors from Adelaide People educated at St Peter's College, Adelaide Place of birth missing (living people) Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Recipients of the Star of Courage (Australia) Tham Luang cave rescue Year of birth missing (living people)