Dr Richard Harris helps SA Police water operations units retrieve body of man in Tank Cave near Mount Gambier
Richard Harris, who rose to global fame with the miracle Thai cave rescue effort, has helped with the “very complex” retrieval of a diver who perished in the state’s South-East.
The body of a Victorian diver who died in the state’s South-East has been retrieved from a “very complex labyrinth” of cave systems near Tantanoola.
SA Police Mount Gambier Superintendent Trent Cox said on Monday afternoon that the man’s body had been “successfully” recovered, and State Emergency Service crews were working to remove it from the small cave entrance.
The man’s body was retrieved on a third recovery dive on Monday following two dives in preparation.
Lieutenant Governor of South Australia Richard Harris – who became well known for his work retrieving young soccer players and their coach from a Thailand cave where they were trapped for 17 days in 2018 – is one of 10 specialist divers who worked with police Water Operations to bring the body back to the surface.
Dr Harris was also involved in the 2011 retrieval of diver and friend Agnes Milowka when she perished in the same Tank Cave system.
The 65-year-old Victorian man was in a party of three when he was reported as unaccounted for on Sunday morning.
He was later found dead in the P7 location of the cave system – an area with cave widths between 350mm and 450mm.
The man was found near an area called the Wombat Holes.
“They (the party) are all well known to one another,” Superintendent Cox said.
“(They’re) all experienced cave divers, all with appropriate certification.”
Mr Cox said the first dive undertaken by police and 10 members of the Cave Divers Association of Australia was to lower oxygen tanks.
“It’s not just a dive straight in and come out with a body, they’ve got to do a significant amount of preparation,” he said.
“The recovery effort is also in a very, very hostile environment.
“It’s restricted manoeuvrability, visibility is frequently an issue. The temperature itself has to be factored in. Slight movements stir up sediment … and that then hampers visibility.”
Emergency services rushed to the site Sunday morning in response to reports a cave diver was unaccounted for.
The alert was made about 10.30am.
The entrance to Tank Cave, near Tantanoola, was open on Monday morning as SA Police Water Operations units climbed in to retrieve the adventurer’s body.
Utes packed up with equipment and oxygen tanks sat in the field atop the cave system that spans 7km of mazelike diveable passages beneath the surface.
Police said there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding the man’s death and a report will be prepared for the coroner.
Tank Cave – rated by divers as “advanced” – is lauded as one of the longest underwater cave systems in Australia, “rich in fossils and offering unique dive experiences and the chance to explore unknown section passages … and challenging exploration potential”.
Located about 25km from Mount Gambier, Tank Cave is a popular but highly technical dive spot. It is named for a water tank that once covered its entrance, requiring divers to descend a ladder to reach the underground entry point.
As police divers descend the short ladder they must affix their oxygen tanks before delving into a small surface lake.
Pitch black without a torch, the lake opens into dozens of passages that spread for kilometres beneath the surface like a tree’s root system.
Passages and caverns no deeper than about 20 metres, some barely larger than 300 millimetres in width are what divers have to squeeze through as they make their way through the system.
Some of the caverns have names like Tight and Nasty, The Crypt, Rocky Horror and The Unknown.
It’s not yet known how far the Victorian diver made it before he tragically died.
Cave diving is a highly specialised form of technical diving that involves the exploration of water-filled caves, often in little or no light. It requires advanced training and is considered an “extreme sport”.
It is not the first time a diver has died at the popular diving destination.
In 2011, 29-year-old diver and archaeologist Agnes Milowka died after running out of air while navigating a narrow part of the cave system.
The retrieval operation in that instance took several days and involved numerous cave divers, including Dr Richard Harris, who famously helped rescue 12 young Thai soccer players and their coach trapped in a Thai cave for 17 days in 2018.
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Originally published as Dr Richard Harris helps SA Police water operations units retrieve body of man in Tank Cave near Mount Gambier
