Richard graduated in natural sciences from Cambridge University in 1972, and spent two years establishing a citizen science survey of waterbirds in Western Port (the survey celebrated it's 50^th anniversary in 2023/24) and trying to do a project on biochemistry of wheat at the University of Melbourne. This convinced him he wanted to work in the bush, not in a laboratory.

His main interests were forest ecology and fauna, especially birds, and in the early 1970s he was employed by the FCV to lead a project on flora and fauna in Boola Boola State Forest. From there he had an extensive career with the FCV, and subsequent land and resource management agencies, working in mostly forest-related research in a wide range of forest communities across Victoria.

Richard retired from the public sector in 2012 and then drew much of his work into a thesis which meant that in 2019 he was awarded a Doctor of Science by the University of Melbourne.