Q&A: Richard “Harry” Harris, anaesthetist & cave diver, 57

In the four years since the cave rescue in Thailand, anaesthetist Richard “Harry” Harris’s life has taken many interesting turns.

Richard Harris with Alfie - the inspiration for his new book. Picture: Roy Van Der Vegt

It’s been four years since your role in the cave rescue in Thailand thrust you into the spotlight. How has your life changed? In 2019, as Australian of the Year, I resigned from the SA Ambulance medical retrieval service – I just didn’t have enough hours in the day. Since then I’ve also whittled back my private practice to pursue some passion projects – a children’s book, my podcast Real Risk, some documentary projects on cave exploration and science… I feel very fortunate to be able to reinvent myself at my age. It’s incredibly exciting.

What put you on the red carpet at the BAFTAs last month? The documentary The Rescue [streaming on Disney+] got a nomination. It was quite strange on the red carpet, all these people on the sidelines giving you the once-over and realising that you’re nobody [laughs]. Apparently about a third of the people there came away with Covid, including me.

The family in your new picture book Alfie The Brave bears a striking resemblance to yours – including the dog. How close is it all to reality? It’s entirely true to life, apart from the snake story. We had to find one brave thing for our staffie Alfie [pictured] to do. In real life he has never done anything brave. We’re just hoping for the day he’ll do something impressive.

What inspired you to write a children’s book, of all things? I’ve done a bit of writing over the years, mainly magazine articles, and I really enjoy the process. But the idea of sitting down and writing a proper book was far too frightening. So I thought, “Well, what’s the smallest book a person can write?” And I love working with kids. A huge part of what I tried to achieve after the rescue was based around kids.

The book’s message is that bravery doesn’t always come naturally, but that’s OK – and you can surprise yourself. Is that how you feel about yourself? I recognised a bit of me in my chicken-livered hound, despite my public persona. I don’t consider myself at all courageous. In fact I suffer from some anxiety from time to time; I have to make myself do things that challenge me, and I think that’s really good for me.

Growing up in Adelaide, were you risk-taker? I was more extroverted than I am now – I was a bit like the class clown. Some of that was probably insecurity, you know, acting out. I got into quite a lot of trouble at school, like a lot of immature young men. Getting into medicine was only due to a last-minute effort in my final year – I had to really pull out the stops.

You’re all for parents letting their kids “off leash” outdoors, just as yours did. Is it worth the risk? Absolutely. And yes, as a doctor working in critical care medicine I’ve seen what can go horribly wrong. But [the cave emergency] was a one-in-a-million event. The advantages of living an adventurous life and taking some well-managed risks are hugely important to children’s development. If you can’t do that as a young person, when you get older you might find it’s too late to know how to manage risk.

Coming up this year are a Netflix drama series based on the cave rescue, and then Ron Howard’s feature film Thirteen Lives, with Joel Edgerton playing you. Would you have picked him? Yeah, well, why not? He’s a good-looking bloke and a fantastic actor, so I’m happy! And I’ll be in the Netflix show, at least for the underwater scenes. I was the diving stunt double for Rodger Corser, the actor who plays me. My other choice would have been Chevy Chase [laughs] – I was pretty fat and unfit during that rescue. I was at my most disgraceful. So I’ve taking the opportunity to sharpen myself up a bit... in case another rescue comes along.

Alfie The Brave by Richard Harris, illustrations by Simon Howe (Puffin, $19.99) is out now.