Richards & Co., c. 1886, Photograph, B 11321
Richard Anstice Perkins aged 2, arrived in South Australia with his parents in 1840 on board "Java". He later helped his parents with their farm at Blackiston, near Mount Barker. He frequently saw bullock teams stuck in Hindley Street and often fed his own bullocks under the gum trees growing where the Arcade is now. He married Elizabeth Amelia Orr, they had nine children and lived at Mount Gambier. In 1877 he was made Overseer of the Government Experimental Farm at Mt Muirhead. He was an expert agriculturalist and well respected in the district. After his work at the Experimental Farm he took up land at Albacutya near Rainbow in the Mallee