Painstakingly researched by author and Woodland Trust volunteer, Chris Stephens, Bristol's Australian Pioneer is the story of Robert Edwin Bush's eventful life and that of the WW1 hospital he created and ran with his wife.Educated at Clifton College and a cricketing team-mate of Gloucestershire's W G Grace, Robert Bush was an extraordinary man with a lineage back to the first Bishop of Bristol.Bush travelled to Australia in 1877 to explore the area north of Perth. After several hazardous expeditions, he settled down to become a successful sheep farmer, an influential politician and a founding vice-president of the Western Australia Cricket Association.He returned to Bristol in 1905. Now, a multi-millionaire, he bought Bishop's Knoll mansion with its extensive gardens and views over the Avon Gorge. Bush quickly established a civic and business life back in Bristol and served as Sheriff in 1912. At the start of WW1, Bush wanted to do something for his adopted country, so he converted Bishop's Knoll into a 100-bed hospital for Australian wounded. More than 2000 Australian soldiers were treated and recovered there.In the 1970s, Bishop's Knoll was demolished and the gardens and arboretum came under the care of the Woodland Trust. A replica of a 1919 commemorative plaque that once adorned the hallway, now stands in the gardens - a fitting reminder of what once stood on the site and a tribute to Mr and Mrs Bush and the extraordinary work they carried out there during the First World War.