Peter Melville Rice was born on 30 December 1928 at Reade Park which has been renamed as Colonel Light Gardens in South Australia. In 1945, Rice joined the Royal Australian Navy where he visited many Pacific and Far East countries until he completed service in 1958.

Rice attended the University of Adelaide from 1960 to 1963, completing a degree in social sciences. He then accepted a position with the South Australian Department of Aboriginal Affairs (SADAA) as a welfare officer working with Australian Aboriginal people in and around Adelaide as well as in the mid-North of South Australia. During that time Rice (along with his wife Barbara and five children) spent time relieving the manager of Musgrave Park Aboriginal Reserve as well as conducting studies including sound and photographic events with Pitjantjatjara people. He was also involved in contemporaneous reviews and assessments of the local people regarding their health and socioeconomic conditions. Rice writes:

"While working as a cadet social studies student with the SA Department of Aboriginal Affairs at Adelaide in 1963 I was asked to relieve the manager of the SA Musgrave Park Station located near Amata in the Mann/Musgrave Ranges area with responsibilites (then) for the (SA) North West Aboriginal Reserve. The station had been established by the government to provide for the welfare of the Pitjantjatjara people in the area and to set some training for local Aboriginal men in cattle station work as well as to assist in giving them locally some income in the work of the Station. The planning was to involve them in the future of the developing cattle industry in the Far North of South Australia and the Northern Territory. Most of the people in the region did not speak english at that time." (Documentation provided by Rice)

Rice's service with SADAA concluded in 1966 when he accepted a position with the then Commonwealth Department of Immigration firstly in Adelaide and then in Canberra developing migrant settlement services on a national basis.