But let’s back up a bit. David grew up in Brunswick in a family of medicos. Father was a doctor, mother, a nurse, and a brother who trained as a Doctor at Melbourne University. He attended Melbourne Grammar till 14. As was the practice at that time, you were either academic and stayed in the high school stream or you were hands on – he took an apprenticeship as a wood machinist. One of David’s workmates at the time was suffering from Glandular Fever and wanted an explanation from David’s father. His father gave him the medical name, mononuclear cytosis. When his workmate was told of the medical name, his reaction was simply ‘oh right’ and ‘good’ – nothing more. David observed that the machines he was working on were made by Wadkin in Leicester in England and decided on a trip there to work in the factory – for 13 months, assembling those machines. Wadkin was a very successful company at the time with advanced personnel policies – soccer ovals, basketball courts, even a plane to take staff to woodworking fairs. A back-packing tour of Europe with his brother was spliced in at this time. On his return to Australia, this experience helped greatly in landing a job with Austral Engineering, the agents for Wadkin machines in Melbourne. The job was not in sales but maintenance, a role he enjoyed. Wadkin machines proved far too heavy and were eventually overtaken by the Italians and
Germans.

After Astral, David moved to K G Johnson (saw doctors) and it was back to Collingwood Tech for a course in saw doctoring. This was in the days before the mechanical processes of today. After K G Johnson, David moved to Tait Timber working on the “moulder” (architraves, windows, etc.). This job too has been superseded these days. The Wood Machinist Ticket in the 1980s proved very valuable at this time. David’s next job was with Modern Tone. He finished up in this job on a Friday, went for an interview the following day only to be pressured to start there and then – he started on the Monday at Danish Mobler furniture. Financial advice to the company a year later resulted in David being ‘last in, first out’ when staff cutbacks were implemented. Next job was with Flair 500 – furniture manufactures. A dodgy ham sandwich for lunch while working for Flair resulted in a stint in Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital and 3 weeks off work. It was back to Tait Timber after that – again working as a “moulder” but this time he was in charge.

After that, it was off to W R Brookes making antique furniture, etc. Clients brought in what was left of a piece of woodwork and would want a faithful reproduction – even when all they had presented was some paint work and what the termites had left of the wood. At times this included grinding the cutters, etc. to produce the moulding. David was involved in the mouldings for Raheen House. The front doors of the Melbourne Club were also a W R Brookes product. After 10 years of ‘no plaudits for a good job and abuse if the job was not right’, he ‘retired’ and did a ‘round Australia tour’. He met his wife on this trip.

During his working career, David bought a ‘renovator’s dream’ in Ashburton which he completely ‘worked through’ – including a ‘man cave’ in the back yard. When David moved to Rosebud in the 1990’s, there was no work for wood machinists, so he set up his own business (lawn mowing) for the next 22 years. But a bout of pneumonia resulted in a significant loss of customers. He was a very keen baseball & hockey player for many years. His baseball prowess took him to the USA.

In his early days (before he could be in a hotel legitimately), his teammates would take him to the Botanical Hotel to buy him some after game drinks. In his later years, his team took advantage of younger teams by analysing their play to work out how best to belt them when their play became predictable.

Married 30 years, two daughters (one a teacher, the other in childcare) and two grand kids for whom he has made the odd bit of woodwork. As foster parents, they nurtured some 15 kids – mostly from drug affected families. And somehow, they fitted in a couple of exchange students (maybe they picked up some German language as a result). When he retired, his wife who worked for the Mornington Shire strongly suggested he get a hobby and WoSP was just there next to the Shire office. In the 3 years since he joined, David has been mainly involved in toy making.