Richard Hugo Oswald Roehricht
Richard Hugo Oswald Roehricht (1834-1890)
1891 Obituary [1]
RICHARD HUGO OSWALD ROEHRICHT, was born at Breslau, Silesia, on the 8th of January, 1834, and was educated in that town.
In 1848, at the early age of fourteen, he was articled to his father, an architect in Bunzlau, Prussia, with whom he remained for six years, with the exception of a few months spent in studying at the Gewerbeschule, in Liegnitz.
In 1854, although only twenty years of age, he went to Australia to seek a wider field of action for the employment of his energy than Germany could offer. After spending some months as a volunteer in the office of Mr. Leonard Terry, an architect of Melbourne, he acted for two years as draughtsman to Mr. Charles Knight, of Kilmore, Victoria, an architect and surveyor.
In 1861, he went to Brisbane, to take up an appointment as a draughtsman in the Boads Branch of the Department of Public Works of Queensland. Two years afterwards he joined the Railway Department as chief draughtsman at Rockhampton, under Mr. H. T. Plews. This position he occupied until 1869, when the office was abolished, and he was appointed road surveyor. On the recommencement of the railway works in 1872, Mr. Roehricht re-entered the railway department as chief draughtsman and assistant engineer, under Mr. Henry C. Stanley, which position he held until the date of his death.
He was a loyal and indefatigable officer, and had the reputation of being one of the hardest workers in the Government service; indeed, his untimely death Inay be indirectly attributed to his efforts to master every detail connected with his office. During his service, some eight hundred miles of railways were constructed.
In 1884, Mr. Roehricht lost his wife, from which shock he never seemed entirely to recover. Three years later, finding that he was unable to concentrate his mind upon his work, he was reluctantly compelled to obtain leave of absence for nine months. He visited Germany, his native land, and returned apparently restored to health and strength. In the summer of 1889, however, he frequently complained of severe pains in the head, Indeed, his old trouble seemed to have returned, and he was again forced to take leave of absence, this time for six months. After travelling in New South Wales for four months without feeling any improvement in his health, he returned to Brisbane, where he tried a course of hydropathic treatment. Nothing, however, was able to benefit him permanently, and he died on the 30th of January, 1890. Mr. Roehricht presented to the Institution, of which he was elected an Associate Member on the 6th of December, 1887, a Paper entitled ‘‘ The Duplication of the Railway Line between Brisbane and Ipswich, Queensland.”