Eliza Frances Caroline Ann Douglas Rich (1830-1902)

Born in 1830 in Dundee, Scotland to David and Mary Hill, Eliza was the youngest of the four Hill sisters by some years who came to Australia. She was 33 years old when she arrived in Western Australia with Mary and David Hay in 1863 (reference). Being young and single, Eliza probably helped her sister Grace with the young children for the first few years and ran a small store in Bunbury (reference). However, five years after she arrived, in 1868, she married George Rich. Born in Taunton, England, George, from a farming family, came to Western Australia under engagement to the Imperial Government in 1855. He resigned from his government position not long after he arrived, moved to Bunbury and purchased land at Dardanup and other properties. George was an excellent farmer, known for his vast knowledge of agriculture. If show exhibits are a guide, George was quite diverse in agricultural pursuits. Over the years, exhibits at the Bunbury show included homemade marmalade, parsnips, pigs, ham and bacon, red wine and prize-winning draught horses (reference; reference; reference). He also produced and exported wool (reference). He was a Judge at the Agricultural show in later years (reference).

George also had other interests, including the timber industry in which he was involved in the first exports of timber from the colony (reference). In 1871, he was awarded the contract to build a new head on the wharf (reference). In 1874, he became a mail contractor and continued this for five and a half years (reference; reference). George was also the first licensee of the Burlington Hotel. George was a community man and was elected to the Bunbury Council in 1876 (reference). He was also made a Justice of the Peace in 1894 (reference).

George and Eliza lived at Taunton Vale, the farm at Dardanup and in 1865, there was a fire while the family was at the Bunbury Show. The dwelling house survived, but several buildings were destroyed (reference). In 1897, the Riches built a ten-room villa on the farm to retire to (reference). Today this house is a heritage-listed property known as Taunton Vale Homestead (reference).

Eliza was 75 years old when she died at home in 1902 (reference). George died two years later, in 1904, aged 78 years, after a long illness (reference). George was a reasonably wealthy man when he died as the part of the estate that went to probate was passed at £9,210, which was worth between 1 and 2 million dollars in 2020, and that did not include properties in trust (reference).

George and Eliza had two daughters - Mary Campbell, born in 1869 and Grace Ramsay, born in 1871 but died the following year when she was only eight months old (reference). Mary married Charles Reynolds from Busselton in 1906 (reference).

Researched by Gaye Englund for the Museum of Perth