About Dan

My father immigrated to Australia as an infant with his family in 1937, hence the long Dutch last name. I was born in Australia and have never been to Holland but would love to visit there one day.

Growing up with my parents and younger brother and sister, I always enjoyed sport and being outdoors. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to complete secondary school in the United States and then lived in Canada for a short period of time before returning home to Australia in 1985.

I started out doing labouring and construction work and then played four seasons in the National Basketball League. This allowed me to support myself while attending university and completing a Bachelor of Economics.

From there I started working with BP Australia learning valuable skills as I climbed the ladder within one of the world's largest companies. When I resigned from BP to go into private enterprise, I was Distributor Marketing Manager for SA, WA, NT and North Qld based in Adelaide.

In early 1999 two investment partners and I bought Spud's Roadhouse at Pimba, 170km north of Port Augusta near Woomera, where I lived for the following seven years. I was the working partner and in that time built the business up to include others at Glendambo, Marla and Innamincka.

In very late 2005 I moved from Pimba to Wilmington to be with my then girlfriend and now wife, Rebecca. Rebecca is a theatre nurse who specialises in heart, joint and major accident/emergency surgery.

While retaining business interests in the Outback, I worked on tourism product development in the Flinders Ranges with the South Australian Tourism Commission, local Councils, businesses and communities. While very broad, the majority of this work centred around the development of cycle tourism in the Southern Flinders Ranges.

Rebecca and I love living in Wilmington, and when not working, enjoy as much time as possible with friends and our ten nieces and nephews and three god children; bushwalking, camping, fishing and renovating our home.