CONSERVATION INTERESTS

In the 1950s, as a member of the Bolgart Country Women's Association, Rica commenced the struggle to protect the local bushland and plant life. She was instrumental in having several areas in the Victoria Plains Shire made into nature reserves and in persuading then Premier, Sir David Brand, to increase the width of road reserves in new land leases in order to preserve the native wildflowers. This culminated in 1996 when the Department of Conservation and Land Management named the Rica Erickson Nature Reserve in her honour. The reserve of bush is located in Nature Reserve 27595 in the Moora District, about 15 kilometres south-west of Calingiri. In a rare break with tradition, the Geographical Names Committee overturned its usual policy of not naming locations after people still living.

As her children grew and the farm was established, Rica found time to return to her naturalist studies and botanical painting and in 1951 the first of her self-illustrated books, Orchids of the West, was published. Triggerplants followed in 1958 and she commenced work on the research for Plants of Prey in Australia, which was published in 1968.