Heritage Bushcare was started in 2006 by Robert Lawrence soon after he completed a Diploma in Conservation & Land Management at TAFE Urrbrae, near the Waite Institute in South Australia.  Even as a boy, Robert has had a love of nature, beginning with the keeping of birds and lizards and extending through gardening to bush conservation and monitoring.  Special interests of his include orchids, grasses and bats.

Over the years he came to realize that there was a lack of orchid knowledge and people were wanting to know about them.  By 2010, he was talking of writing a guide to native orchids.  With the support of his family, he wrote Start With The Leaves in a year.  He found that other people wanted him to complete it and fortunately for them all, Start With The Leaves was self-published in September, 2011.

In 2011 & 2012 Robert was secretary of the Native Orchid Society of South Australia and is currently secretary of the Nature Conservation Society of South Australia.  He is also a member of the Australian Plant Society (SA), the Weed Management Society of South Australia and the Native Grass Resource Group.