In 1929, Richards took leave from the University and was a member of the Royal Commission into Mining in Queensland. This enabled him to travel to the International Geology Conference in South Africa, as a representative of the Australian and Queensland governments. Being equally interested in art as he was in geology, Richards was a member of the Survey of Australian and New Zealand Museums and Art Galleries for the Carnegie Corporation of New York in 1932–33, and received a Carnegie Institute medal for his services to this survey in 1936. This enabled him to take an extended trip overseas to visit the Carnegie Institute in Washington, D.C. and the Seismology Laboratory in Pasadena, California (Caltech). This visit led to a Commonwealth Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) grant to obtain a second Milne-Shaw Seismograph for the University, following the 1935 earthquake in Gayndah, Queensland. The University established their first Seismology station in 1937, thanks to the work of Richards and his colleague W.H. Bryan. Richards would be appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Queensland Art Gallery in 1938, and become President of the same in 1945 until his death in 1947.