David has nearly thirty years of teaching experience. During this time he participated in all aspects of school life and loved working with young people. For many years David became increasingly concerned with the numbers of young people – the so called ‘difficult' students – who ‘fell through the cracks' of an inflexible education system.

David and his wife, Julie, established the Blackwood Centre for Adolescent Development in Gippsland. They found themselves so busy just surviving with limited resources and building the site, that the enormity of what they could achieve was slow to dawn. After ten years however, it is obvious that the continued success of Blackwood and it's young people is and should be, a challenge to the very concept of the accepted definition of education. The strength to take up this challenge has been fostered through the amazing success of the students, the support of the wider community and in particular the corporate sector. It is through the corporate and business sector that Blackwood has received the greatest mentorship, and the strongest support to create a setting of excellence for young people at risk and to challenge current practices. Every success, every dollar, every supporter that Blackwood gains adds to the ripple of change that Blackwood can create.

David says, “I know that I started off with a vision of a little school and have ended up with an extraordinary community of people who continually try to find ways to help us do our job better. The goodness of people constantly amazes me and makes up for the negative and ugly sides of the community that we often see in our work.”