David started playing darts at the age of 25 and progressed into the Queensland State team in 1995. Four years later, he made the Australian
WDF World Cup team for the first time. He made his first trip to the
Lakeside Country Club in 2001 to play in the Embassy World Championship, losing to
Andy Fordham 0–3 in the first round. The following year, in 2002, he qualified for his second attempt at the World Championship. Despite being a 66/1 outsider before the tournament began, he went all the way to the final, beating Ritchie Davies,
Marko Pusa,
Bob Taylor before winning a tight semi-final against
Martin Adams 5–4. He was the slight favourite for the title going into the final due to his results, and went on to beat
Mervyn King 6–4 in the final. He became the first Australian player to win a World Professional Darts Championship. Later in 2002, he won the
World Darts Trophy in the Netherlands, one of the
British Darts Organisation's other Grand Slam titles. Also in 2002, David won the Australian Grand Masters and the
Doeland Grand Masters to cap off a superb year. David also reached the semi-finals of the
World Darts Trophy in 2003 and 2004, losing both times to
Raymond van Barneveld. David also lost to Barneveld in the final of the
International Darts League in 2004. David went into the 2003 World Championship at the Lakeside as the number 1 seed and pre-tournament favourite after his 2002 successes. The defence of his world title started creditably as he defeated Brian Sorensen and
Vincent van der Voort in his first two matches, but ended with a surprising 0–5 loss at the quarter-final stage to Ritchie Davies of
Wales. After that defeat, David has failed to win another match at the Lakeside event. He went out in the first round in 2004 to
Darryl Fitton and in 2005 to
Tony Eccles. He failed to qualify for the 2006 or 2007 events. He returned to Lakeside in 2008 but lost in the first round to
Gary Robson. In February 2005, David was one of the four BDO players who competed at the prestigious
2005 Masters of Darts, against four PDC players. Of the four matches that David played at the event, he won 2 and lost 2. He defeated
Wayne Mardle 4–2 in sets in his opening match, lost 0–4 in sets to reigning PDC World Champion
Phil Taylor in his second match, lost 3–4 in sets to reigning UK Open champion
Roland Scholten in his third match, and then won his fourth match against the reigning World Grand Prix champion,
Colin Lloyd, by 4–3 in sets. Despite his two victories, David failed to progress to the semi-finals, with
Andy Fordham and
Raymond van Barneveld progressing to the semi-finals from the BDO group, as David was eliminated. Phil Taylor eventually won the tournament. ==Health problems==