Harris has worked on medical assistance teams in natural disasters in the Pacific region and taken part in Australian Aid missions to Vanuatu. 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.[1][2][3]
Cave diving
Harris is a cave diver with over 30 years of experience and dives with the Wetmules team. Harris' cave diving experiences include leading a team of Australian divers to record depths of 192,221 and 245m (630,725 and 804ft) in 2011,2012,and 2020 respectively[4] 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 South Australia.[5][6] Harris is listed as the international regional coordinator for Australia for the International Underwater Cave Rescue and Recovery organization.[7]
In 2023,Harris conducted a dive to 230m (750ft) while using hydrogen as a breathing gas on a rebreather.[8] 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 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.[2][9]
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.[10]
To allow the rescue to occur,Harris developed a plan to keep the boys anaesthetised with ketamine 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,[1] this is not correct according to Harris's own detailed account of the rescue.[11]:275–276
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:ketamine to sedate them,and atropine to suppress saliva production to stop choking.[12]
Lieutenant Governor of South Australia
On 25 January 2024,Harris was appointed as the Lieutenant Governor of South Australia.[13] He was sworn in on 9 February 2024 by Governor Frances Adamson.[14]
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.[15][16]
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