Personnel
David J. Halmarick
Managing Director and Chairman
Dip Mil Stud (Arts) UNSW
Lt Col (Ret) Royal Australian Army Ordnance Corps
Past Fellow Institute of Company Directors
A Duntroon graduate, David served for 26 years in the Australian Army reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1982 in the Ordnance Corps. He has served in a wide variety of staff and regimental appointments involving transport, logistics, facilities planning, resources coordination, procurement, contract administration, officer training and policy development. In the late 1980’s, he was responsible for high level policy development in the field of explosive safety and hazardous goods management and was instrumental in developing Defence policy concerning the rehabilitation of land contaminated by military activity. Over a three year period in Canberra he made a major contribution to the Defence Department's appreciation of problems in this area. In this policy position, which also entailed his membership of the Defence Explosives Safety and Transport Committee, he gained an in-depth awareness of the UXO clearance problem.
As a founding Director and Chairman of the Milsearch Board, David is responsible for overall management and direction, as well as marketing and business development in overseas markets. As Managing Director, he has been closely involved in numerous UXO site assessments and clearance operations, both in Australia, Kuwait, Singapore, PNG and Indochina. In the early 1990's, David established a unique working relationship with the Geophysical Research Institute (GRI) of the University of New England which enabled the successful commercialisation of digital magnetometer systems for UXO detection tasks. Working with Dr John Stanley of the GRI, he developed for the first time an objective, measurable and legally supportable approach to UXO site certification based on geophysical techniques. This pioneering work has subsequently led to the utilization of geophysical magnetometry techniques as one of the main stays of UXO search operations through the developed world.
The understanding of new technological approaches derived from the close relationship with geophysicists and the industrial decontamination industry has resulted in Milsearch Pty Ltd being one of the foremost UXO companies in the application of geophysical survey techniques to UXO remediation.
David has more recently assisted in the field development of the Australian manufactured Minelabs Electronics range of mine detectors. He was responsible for the introduction of innovative Minelabs digital detection technology into Cambodia where it subsequently out performed all other military pattern mine detectors in the identification of minimum metal plastic mines in all types of adverse geological environments.
In Indochina, David has established a joint venture EOD company with the Lao Ministry of Defence and in Cambodia, has secured for Milsearch the first formal registration to operate in that country as a commercial de-mining company. Through these initiatives, David has positioned Milsearch as the predominant EOD operator in Indochina.
