Charlie Douglas was educated at the Royal High School and worked at the accountant's office of the Commercial Bank of Scotland from 1857 to 1862.

[6] Douglas could not swim, and he once claimed that this fact "had saved his life many a time", implying that he would not enter rivers when it was risky.

[1] When exploring Douglas carried little in the way of equipment beyond some basic provisions, including tobacco for his beloved pipe, and a swag.

Although Douglas lived simply he supported himself by occasional paid work, supplemented by some infrequent provisions sent by his family in Scotland, who also supplied him with some of the books that he read avidly.

[4][5] Douglas was a quiet, shy man, who was noted for his keen, accurate and entertaining observations relating to flora, fauna (particularly birds) and geology in his journals, sketches, watercolours and survey reports.

[5] Douglas condemned the changes to the natural landscape he saw occurring in Westland and he became increasingly embittered as old age and illness began to curtail his later explorations.

[7] During this 20-year period, both Gerhard Mueller and George John Roberts attempted to employ Douglas full-time at the survey department, but he instead sent in voluntary reports and maps of the rugged Westland valleys that he tramped and explored and earned a part-time wage while exploring for the department.

[5] During 1874, Douglas met George Roberts and formed a friendship that was to lead to his growing involvement with the New Zealand Survey Department.

Also in 1874, Douglas formed a partnership with Bob Ward and the two men bought 700 acres (280 ha) of land on the Paringa River and began cattle farming.

[8] After his time as a cattle farmer, Douglas abandoned a settled life and began to tramp and explore Westland, picking up odd-jobs as he needed them.

[5] In light of Douglas' generally trustworthy, detailed observations and measurements as a surveyor, it has been hypothesised by paleozoologist, Trevor H. Worthy, that the dead birds may have represented a biological relict or remnant of the otherwise extinct Haast's eagle.

[10] Douglas died, two months short of his 76th birthday, of a cerebral haemorrhage in the Westland Hospital on 23 May 1916,[4][5][8] and was buried in Hokitika Cemetery.

[11] The following works by Douglas were published, exhibited or are held and collected:[12] Douglas was awarded the 1897 Royal Geographical Society Gill Memorial Prize for "persistent explorations during twenty-one years of the difficult region of forests and gorges on the western slopes of the New Zealand Alps".