Richardson Hall is named in honour of Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson, a prominent Australian author, who adopted the male pseudonym "Henry Handel Richardson" (H.H.R.) in 1908.

Richardson was born in Melbourne in 1870 at 3 Blanche Terrace (believed to now be 171 Victoria Parade, Fitzroy). She was the elder daughter of Walter Lindesay Richardson (c. 1826–1879), M. D., and his wife Mary (nee Bailey). Though born into a prosperous family, her father's fortunes fluctuated during her early years, and the family moved frequently  - from Brighton and Hawthorn to Chiltern, Queenscliff, Koroit and Maldon. When she was nine, Richardson's father died.

Between the ages of thirteen and seventeen, Richardson attended Presbyterian Ladies College, where it became clear that she had a talent for both literature and music. After leaving college, she worked as a governess for a short time. Richardson, her mother and her sister rented houses in Richmond and in Kambrook Road, near the Caulfield Racecourse, before moving to Europe in 1887 to enable Richardson to further her musical education at Leipzig.

While in Leipzig, Richardson met J.G. Robertson, a Scotsman studying literature at the University, and they became engaged. Fostered by Robertson and facilitated by the University library, Richardson's great passion for literature led her to read voraciously. After a long engagement (due to a shortage of money), the couple married in December 1895. In the early years of her marriage Richardson commenced work on her first novel, Maurice Guest. Set in Leipzig, it vividly re-created the passions and drama of the student life she knew so well.

Richardson and Robertson lived in Germany until 1903, when he was appointed Professor of German Literature at the University of London. Richardson would live the rest of her life in England, although she returned to Australia in 1912 for several months to research family history for her trilogy, The Fortunes of Richard Mahony. By the time Maurice Guest was published in 1908, Richardson had begun The Getting of Wisdom, based on her experiences at Presbyterian Ladies College; her favorite amongst her own books. The years 1917 to1929 saw the publication of the three separate volumes of The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, which was an imaginative re-creation of her fathers life. Only with this publication was Henry Handel Richardson's skill as a novelist finally acknowledged. Highlighing the enduring nature of Richardson's writing, The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney was recently voted Australia's 60th most loved book in a poll by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (see here).

A collection of her short stories, and a fragment of what was to have been the continuation of the Mahony saga appeared in 1934 as The End of A Childhood; and five years later she completed her final novel, The Young Cosima, exploring the involvement of Cosima Liszt with Hans von Bulow and Richard Wagner.

Naturally shy and nervous, Richardson disliked being interviewed or having to make public appearances: a characteristic that was often mistaken for aloofness. Photographs usually made her look severe, but she had a lively sense of humour and always enjoyed a good joke. Feminist re-readings of her work have countered earlier interpretations of her as unimaginative and overly dependent on biographical fact. Her place in Australian literature is important, her work representing a significant Australian contribution to the novel genre.

After her husband's death in 1933, Henry Handel Richardson became increasingly withdrawn. With her secretary-companion, Olga Roncoroni, she lived quietly on the south coast of England until her death in Hastings on the 20th of March, 1946. Her ashes were mingled with her husband's and scattered over the waters of the English Channel.

She never finished her last work, Myself When Young , and the incomplete autobiography was published posthumously in 1948.

Recently, Monash University have developed the Monash Henry Handel Richardson Project to reproduce all Richardson's publications. If you want to know more about this project, please visit http://arts.monash.edu.au/english/publications/hhr.php