- Rica Erickson
Infobox_Person
name = Rica Erickson
caption = Cover of "Orchids of the West" (1951), Erickson's first book.
birth_date = birth date and age|1908|8|10
birth_place = Boulder,Western Australia
death_date =
death_place =
occupation = Naturalist, botanical artist, historian and authorFrederica Lucy "Rica" Erickson AM, nee Sandilands, (born
10 August 1908 ) is anAustralia n naturalist, botanical artist,historian ,author andteacher . Without any formal scientific training, she has written extensively onbotany andbird s, as well asgenealogy and generalhistory . Erickson is the author of ten books, co-author of four, editor of twelve, and author or co-author of numerous papers and articles that have been printed in popular, scientific and encyclopaedic publications.cite book|author=Erickson, Rica|title=A Naturalist's Life|year=2005|publisher=University of WA Press|isbn=1920694277]Biography
Born in
Boulder, Western Australia , Erickson is the eldest of eight children of Phoebe Cooke and Christopher Sandilands, both of whom immigrated toWestern Australia from Victoria in 1906, and met in the goldfield town. Christopher Sandilands was a farmer's son and worked at theGreat Boulder Mine as a filter press hand. The family lived on Dwyer Street.Christopher enlisted into the army and served in
France duringWorld War I . He returned home disabled and was unable to resume his work at the mine, consequently purchasing a block of virgin bush at Kendenup to begin farming as anorchard ist. It was here that Rica met botanical artistEmily Pelloe in 1921. Pelloe was introduced afterJack De Garis , the publisher of Pelloe's books, gave the Erickson family a gift of her just published "Wildflowers of Western Australia" as a Christmas present.She returned to the goldfields to attend Eastern Goldfields High School, staying with her grandmother for five years. While living in Boulder she joined the
Girl Guides where she developed an interest in birds and flowering plants. Choosing a career of teaching she was appointed as monitor teacher at her family town of Kendenup in 1924. After Kendenup, she was transferred to Mount Barker, Dumbleyung and Gnowangerup and in 1927 went to Perth and enteredClaremont Teachers College for the required one year of training to become a country teacher. While there she metDom Serventy and joined theWestern Australian Naturalists' Club .By 1931 she was teaching at isolated one-teacher schools such as Aurora between Cranbrook and Kojonup, and later at Young's Siding near
Wilson Inlet , and Denmark. The countryside on the southern coast piqued an interest inorchid s and coincided with the publication of her friend Emily Pelloe's second book, "West Australian Orchids". Eminent orchidologistsEdith Coleman and Dr.Richard Sanders Rogers were quoted extensively in Pelloe's book, and Erickson established contact, sending them sketches and pressings of orchids found in her region. Wilson Inlet was the site of many specimens painted in 1881 byRobert D. FitzGerald , who published the important work "Australian Orchids". In Christmas 1931 she holidayed in Victoria and met Coleman and Rogers who encouraged her further study. Knowing she would be returning to a school posting near Wilson Inlet, Rogers instructed her on the finer details of painting the plants using pen and ink instead of pencil as she did previously.After several years teaching on the southern coast of Western Australia, Erickson requested and received a transfer to the school at Bolgart north of Toodyay in 1934. It was here that she regularly passed by "Hawthornden", ['Hawthornden' coordinates: coord|31|30|46.7|S|116|27|27.3|E|display=inline] the historic house of pioneer settler, botanist and naturalist James Drummond. Later she would write a detailed family history of the Drummond family, in "The Drummonds of Hawthornden", as well as histories of the surrounding districts in "The Victoria Plains" and "Old Toodyay and Newcastle". Another interest that she followed in Bolgart was
bee s andwasp s, which she studied with theapiologist Tarlton Rayment ."She became fascinated by native bees and wasps" in cite web|title= The Naturalist |publisher= State Library of Western Australia - Rica Erickson |url= http://www.slwa.wa.gov.au/erickson/pages/naturalist.html |accessdate= 2008-07-16]In Bolgart she met share-farmer and future husband Sydney "Syd" Uden Erickson (1908-1987) and they were married in Fremantle in June 1936. The couple bought land at Bolgart in 1938, which they cleared and named "Fairlea". They raised four children: Dorothy (born 1939), John (1940), Bethel (1942), and Robin (1943); the next few years were devoted largely to raising the children and establishing the farm. However Erickson maintained her interest in natural history and in 1951 published her first book, the self-illustrated "Orchids of the West". This was followed by "Triggerplants" in 1958. [cite web|url=http://www.slwa.wa.gov.au/erickson/pages/bibliography.html|title=Rica Erickson - bibliography|work=Sate Library of Western Australia|accessdate=2008-07-10]
The state botanist
Charles Gardner ran awildflower tour in 1957 for the Midland Railway Road Service. The following year Erickson was invited to lead the tour, taking the opportunity for a paid holiday. In later years she led other groups of tourists on nature based tours in the south and north of the state.In 1965 the couple travelled to Europe for a holiday where Rica spent some time studying Drummond's plant specimens, which were sent from Western Australia in the mid-19th century and stored at the Kew Gardens herbarium in
London . On their return, they retired from farm life and settled in the Perth suburb of Nedlands, where Erickson wrote several more books. She became a member of theRoyal Western Australian Historical Society and her writing during this period focussed on the early days of the state's European settlement, and its convict era. She wrote a history of the society called "Forty Years of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society: 1936-1976" which was published in "Early Days ". Assisted by a group of volunteers, she compiled the first three volumes of the "Dictionary of West Australians " in time for Western Australia's sesquicentennial year of 1979. Syd died in 1987.In 1973 "Flowers and Plants of Western Australia"cite book | author = Erickson, R. | coauthors = George, A. S.; Marchant, N. G.; Morcombe, M. K. | year = 1973 | title = Flowers and plants of Western Australia | location = Sydney | publisher = A.H. & A.W. Reed | pages = 15, 46] was first published. This book on Western Australian wildflowers and designed for popular use contained over 500 colour photographs and was the combined effort of Erickson as chairman and coordinator,
Alex George andNeville Marchant as botanists, andMichael Morcombe as the photographer.Nature reserve
In 1964, the Bolgart Branch of the
Country Women's Association petitioned theVictoria Plains Shire Council for the protection of convert|124|ha of remaining forest along the Old Plains Road, about convert|15|km south-west of Calingiri, an important track through the bush which was blazed by Drummond in 1842. The reserve is located at coord|31|8|39|S|116|17|39|E|display=inline.The request was granted, and in 1996, following another request from the Association, the
Department of Conservation and Land Management named Reserve 27595 the "Rica Erickson Nature Reserve". ["Rica Erickson - Reserve near Calingiri named after botanist' Calm News : official newspaper of the Department of Conservation and Land Management, Sept-Oct 1996, p.12] [McGill, Gwenda.(1996) "Reserve officially named after Dr Rica Erickson in honour of her botanical and preservation work in the area" Avon valley advocate, 14 Aug 1996, p. 3] Naming the reserve after a living person was an unusual step for the committee."In a rare break with tradition..." in cite web |title= Biography, Conservation Interests |publisher= State Library of Western Australia - Rica Erickson |url= http://www.liswa.wa.gov.au/erickson/pages/conservation.html |accessdate= 2008-07-16] Over three hundred people attended the official opening on date|11 August 1996.Google Street View of nature reserve entrance. [http://maps.google.com/maps?q=-38.219124,141.776002&ie=UTF8&layer=c&cbll=-31.143997,116.294918&panoid=XvOlFTvTIqBNey8bLrCxTg&cbp=1,122.14587827080568,,0,0.19382740209322186&ll=-31.125554,116.303587&spn=0.03152,0.086517&t=h&z=14]
Awards and recognition
In 1980 she was awarded an
honorary degree of doctor of letters from theUniversity of Western Australia for her research and work in the field of botany. In the same year she was named Western Australian Citizen of the Year in the category of the Arts, Culture and Entertainment, and in 1987 was made a Member of the Order of Australia , "in recognition of service to the arts, particularly as an author and illustrator".cite web |title= Its an Honour - Erickson, Frederica Lucy |publisher= Australian Government |url= http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/honours/honour_roll/search.cfm?aus_award_id=869802&search_type=advanced&showInd=true |accessdate= 2008-06-17]In May 2007 she was awarded the
Heritage Council of Western Australia individual award for her life long contribution to heritage in Western Australia.Noted botanist
Alex George with whom she co-wrote "Flowers and Plants of Western Australia" in 1973, wrote: "Rica Erickson has been one of the foremost amateur natural historians in Western Australia in the 20th Century."Ronda Jamieson, Director of the
J S Battye Library in Western Australia said "Rica Erickson is one of Western Australia's treasures".cite web|url=http://www.slwa.wa.gov.au/erickson/pages/foreword.html|title=Rica Erickson, foreword|work=State Library of Western Australia|accessdate=2008-07-09] The State Library houses the "Rica Erickson collection", a repository which includes manuscripts of her publications, background papers relating to the genealogical dictionaries, all of her published works, field journals, and 500 of her botanical art works. A website maintained by the library has been created as a tribute to her.
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