David graduated from the VSF in 1963 and the University of Melbourne in 1966. In 1978-79 he did a post-graduate year studying forestry at Yale University.

His first posting after VSF was to Cohuna before, like many others, he joined the team managing the Sirex infestation. From 1966-1969 he worked in the Casterton District and his major task was to map potential plantation land, and 1969-1971 was spent at Bendoc managing timber harvesting operations.

From 1971-1978 he was the Management Planning Officer at Bairnsdale, with the major task being mapping the forest types for use in Land Conservation Council studies

From 1979-1985 he was in Tallangatta District and involved in hardwood and softwood logging, plantation land purchase, public land management and, of course, fire management.

In 1985 he became Assistant Regional Manager, Public Land Management in the new CFL Region of Wodonga. Later regional amalgamations changed his role to Principal Planning Officer and then Senior Forester.

David retired in 1998 but still did some work for his old department, and he was also employed part-time as a forest officer for the Towong Shire, his major responsibility being compliance with the Code of Forest Practice on private land.

From 2007-2015 he coordinated the formation of the Upper Murray Plantation Marketing Group, which brought together small pine plantation owners as a single entity and resulted in a successful harvesting contract with HVP Plantations.