THE hero South Australian doctor at the centre of the successful rescue of a young Thai soccer team from a flooded cave network this week is a regular visitor to the South East.
Adelaide anesthetist and underwater cave explorer Dr Richard “Harry” Harris has often been involved in search and rescue training across the region’s extensive cave network.
He also performed the sad task in 2011 of retrieving the body of a dead diver from Tank Cave, midway between Millicent and Mount Gambier.
His friend Agnes Milowka had run out of air in the underwater cave, which has an entrance only 70 metres from the Princes Highway.
Dr Harris was among the expert cave divers who were summoned by police to assist in the recovery of her body.
His latest mission involved assisting with the high-profile rescue of 12 boys and their coach trapped in a cave in Thailand.
The entire Wild Boars soccer team of young boys and their coach was brought to safety this week after spending more than a fortnight trapped deep in a cave system near Chiang Rai in northern Thailand.
Dr Harris is understood to have been the last person out of the cave.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has hinted Dr Harris and the rest of the Australian team will be formally recognised for their efforts.
Ms Bishop said Dr Harris played an integral role in the operation, along with his diver partner Perth vet Craig Challen, Australian Federal Police and Navy divers and DFAT personnel.
A former Thai Navy seal died in the early rescue attempts.
Based in Adelaide, Dr Harris has more than 30 years of diving experience also works as a medical retrieval specialist with the SA Ambulance Service’s MedSTAR unit.
After the Thailand rescue was completed on Tuesday, Dr Harris learned that his father had passed away.
MedSTAR clinical director Dr Andrew Pearce said this was clearly a time of grief for the Harris family.
Dr Pearce said it would be magnified by the physical and emotional demands of being part of this week’s highly complex and ultimately successful rescue operation.
“Harry is a quiet and kind man who did not think twice about offering his support on the Thai rescue mission,” Dr Pearce said.
“All the team at SA Ambulance Service is incredibly proud of Dr Harris.
“It has been a tumultuous week with highs and lows.”
Dr Harris is also a member of the internationally renowned deep underwater cave exploration group known as the Wet Mules.
“Mount Gambier is the centre of cave diving in Australia and for us a place we always return to,” Dr Harris told The Border Watch when he visited in 2015, while visiting to conduct a series of dives to finetune equipment.
The Mules are highly regarded for various expeditions, including exploring Daxing Spring in China’s Guangxi province to a depth of 213 metres and the Pearse Resurgence on New Zealand’s South Island to 221 metres.
“We are a team of eight diverse individuals with a unifying hunger for exploring the unexplored, including cave systems and deep sea wrecks,” Dr Harris said at the time.
“As such, we decided on the Wet Mules as a name for ourselves since a large part of our chosen pursuit of cave diving seems to revolve around ferrying heavy objects in and out of caves, submersing ourselves in frigid waters for many hours and generally abusing our bodies in a multitude of ways.
“Just like a wet mule, we are stubborn, strong of back and oblivious to pain, which are good qualities for an exploration cave diver to have.”
Harry said the Mules were not only concerned with exploring caves, but also with contributing to the science, conservation and understanding of cave systems.
“Here in Australia, Mount Gambier and its caves and caverns are in our backyard and as members of the Cave Divers Association of Australia we thoroughly enjoy them whenever we can,” he said.
