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Warm, witty, wise, and often charmingly whacky, David touched the lives of us all. Few public servants have ever earned so much respect for their work while at the same time generating such feelings of affection among their colleagues.
The news that he was one of the 15 victims of the aircraft crash at Lockhart River on Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula on May 7 came as a profound shock.
Most of us knew him as the Principal Scientist of Biosecurity Australia—his official title—but he was also a fine gentleman and a great veterinary epidemiologist as well as managing to fit in time as an inventor, an air force reserve pilot, a cyclist and rower. His hobbies included electronics, bee keeping, worm farming, fishing and home brewing.
It was a very full life and David spread good humour in whatever he did and wherever he went.
He was best known in his career as a veterinary scientist for his work on the control and eradication of livestock diseases.
His career began in England in 1971 with a degree in animal science, followed four years later by a degree in veterinary medicine. Over the next 10 years he continued to collect academic qualifications, culminating in his PhD in veterinary epidemiology from James Cook University in 1985.
After his first two degrees he managed a private veterinary practice in rural Kent for a year before the lure of the South Pacific took him to the highlands of Papua New Guinea.
There, as a regional and then Chief Veterinary Officer for the PNG Government’s Department of Primary Industries, he worked to eradicate brucellosis, tuberculosis and buffalo fly from the highlands.
His role in PNG could hardly have provided him with better groundwork for his eventual role with Biosecurity Australia. He investigated disease outbreaks, ran an animal laboratory, monitored the animal disease status of neighbouring countries and formulated testing protocols for live animals and animal products.
He left the Pacific islands to complete his PhD, but soon returned, as a senior research scientist, to coordinate projects involving livestock diseases in Fiji, the Solomons, Vanuatu, Western Samoa, Tonga, Indonesia and Timor.
Experience in the control and management of parasites and diseases in these islands led to consultancy offers from the CSIRO’s Division of Animal Health and the Singaporean Government.
David’s interest in better monitoring methods and in electronics prompted him to invent a gas-powered mosquito trap as a check against incursions of Japanese encephalitis into northern Queensland from Papua New Guinea. The traps could replace the very time-consuming and costly method of collecting samples from feral pig herds as a way of testing for the Japanese encephalitis virus.
They are now being field-tested by the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service’s (AQIS) Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy and Queensland Tropical Health Unit scientists in Cape York Peninsula and the Torres Strait.
David spent 10 years with AQIS, taking a lead role in animal quarantine programs, reviews, research projects, the Supermarket to Asia program, and pre- and post-export testing.
He joined Biosecurity Australia in 2000 to head a branch of 30 scientific and veterinary specialists who undertook risk assessments on imports of animals and animal products.
All his friends and colleagues extend their deepest sympathy to David’s wife Anne and his children, Rupert, Natalie and Melissa.
“Frater, ave atque vale” — hail brother, and farewell |