When Vernon Harris was working underground in the mines near London during World War II, he would dream of being in the great outdoors.
More than 70 years later, after a successful career as a zoologist, the Hervey Bay man has discovered more than 43 species of animals.
The 97-year-old is now writing a book about microscopic marine creatures called copepods, which have been the focus of his studies for the past four decades.
Looking back over a lifetime of work, Dr Harris said he could trace his love for wildlife back to being a young boy growing up on the outskirts of London.
"I'd always been very interested in animals," he said.
"My parents' house had a very long garden. At the bottom of the garden, there was a stable with a little door that opened into the forest and fields of grass, usually with yellow buttercups and cows.
"We would go out to have our lunch in the forest and I was always looking for beetles, and grubs, and playing with honey bees."
From WWII to zoology
The memories Dr Harris had of London were less fond as he grew older and was conscripted for World War II.
"I wasn't given a rifle and a tin top hat, they gave me a pair of boots with steel toes and overalls, and they sent me down the mine," he said.
"They said [it was] more important to get coal to produce steel and work the factories."
After Dr Harris was demobilised at the end of the war in the mid-1940s, he went to the University of London where he studied zoology for the next three years.
"When I passed my exams, I was appointed as a lecturer at the London University and went out to Nigeria, and so that's really where lecturing started," Dr Harris said.
"Now you can't think of a better place to be sent to [than] Africa as a lecturer in zoology … all of the wonderful animals."
Moving between Nigeria and England throughout his career, Dr Harris retired from lecturing in 1986, but his fascination with one marine critter inspired him to continue researching.
When the warmer Australian weather eventually drew Dr Harris away from England, and he moved to the coastal Queensland town of Hervey Bay in 1992 after a stint in Canberra, his fascination with a tiny marine creature intensified.
Discovering copepods
"The things that I like to work on are called copepods … 'cope' means paddle, and 'pod' means foot," Dr Harris said.
"So, copepods are little animals [that] swim about with paddle feet.
"I've collected almost 30 new species from New South Wales, another 12 in Japan, and a couple in Scotland, so [I've discovered] 43 new species."
There are about 12,000 species of copepod, including 2,500 marine variations, but Dr Harris said there was little published information on the colourful microscopic crustaceans.
This was what inspired Dr Harris to sum up the past four decades of research in a book of his own.
"It's not often that people can turn up with 43 new animals, new to science," Dr Harris said.
"Nobody knows anything about them, but I've spent now nearly 36 years studying them … so I'm writing a book about them.
"It will be about the life of these things — how they live and what they do."
Life by the sea
Despite spending the past 15 years in a retirement village, Dr Harris said "retirement" was a word used loosely.
"You see I'm still working on my research; I never retired," he said.
Senior village manager Sally Zentfeld said Dr Harris's passion for zoology had not dimmed with age.
"Vernon moved into our village at Bolton Clarke Baycrest about 16 years ago," she said.
"Just because people get older doesn't mean they can't be engaged in the things that they love doing, and Dr Vernon Harris is definitely a great example of that."
