[3] The first European owner was Edward Dobson, who had a cottage in Nayland Street and whose 50 acres (20 ha) ran up the hill.

Dobson kept 2 acres (0.81 ha) around his house and sold the remainder of his land to George Day.

[3] He was also a member of the Christchurch Golf Club and took pity of a group of men who regularly met in Sumner on an empty section for an improvised game of golf using hockey sticks, tennis balls, and tin cans sank into the ground as holes.

He offered them 40 acres (16 ha) of his undulating land, on which the 12-hole Richmond Hill Golf Course opened in April 1910.

There were just ten houses on Richmond Hill by 1930, and activity only picked up after the end of World War II.