DAVID Bragg is no stranger to odd looks and plenty of scepticism, but he takes it all in his stride as he quietly goes about his unusual job as a water diviner.
Water divination or dowsing is an ancient technique practiced across history and cultures, but it has never been proven.
For David the proof is in his accuracy for finding water, which on the mountain, he said is 97 per cent; the other three per cent is unknown because he doesn’t know if the people ever drilled where he told them to.
He’s done hundreds of private homes on the mountain and most of the businesses, including the Tamborine Mountain Botanic Gardens, Tamborine Mountain State Primary and High School, Thunderbird Park, Curtis Road water depot and Pether’s Rainforest Retreat.
“I always wanted to be a plumber,” David said. “I love water and pipes and the flow of water, but I never had the opportunity to be a plumber then the opportunity to buy a little pump business came up.”
However, it was after selling a health food shop in Southport to take up his dream of becoming a farmer that he discovered water divination.
“I always thought I could be a farmer one day. I came from Sydney and was a city boy but had a dream of becoming a farmer,” he said.
David bought a 20-acre property near Toowoomba to grow avocados and kiwi fruit.
“I said to the estate agent how do we get some water and he said you get a water diviner,” he recalled.
“The estate agent turned out to be the diviner. He walked around and found this spot and said, ‘drill here’. I was relieved and sceptical and said, ‘how do you know that?’.”
David was in awe and asked if he thought he could do it.
“He said he could feel my energy, and he proceeded to teach me how,” David said.
“I tried it 100 times before we drilled it and when we did it was exactly what he said, so I was a true believer then.”
He described himself as a spiritual person. At 17 he began reading alternative books on Buddhism and the Egyptian Book of the Dead. At 20 he learnt to meditate, a practice he still maintains.
“My parents used to say people, ‘David is sensitive’. I’ve always been a bit introverted,” he admitted.
In 1987 he bought Tamborine Pumps and Irrigation and began really practicing his water divining over six years.
Listening to David quietly describe how he prepares himself and the process of finding water deep beneath the earth it’s hard not to be both fascinated and disbelieving all at once.
“It’s mostly magnetic attraction,” he said. “I believe we all have a higher consciousness which knows everything about us. Even Einstein said we only use about 10 per cent of our consciousness.
“I have to prepare myself – a conscious meditative state. I do affirmations before I go out, some breathing exercises to get me into a focused state.
“When I’m doing it, I’m focusing on my heart, which is our centre of being, then I clear my mind – let go of emotions and thoughts and feelings to a point where I can centre yourself. I talk and say, ‘I’m looking for water’. I visualise underground blue water. I sometimes don’t drink for a few hours before I go out, so I’m dry in the mouth.
“I feel an attraction which gets stronger closer to the source.”
He has to clear the energy fields or lay lines before starting too by talking to the energy fields and using a crystal to draw the energy into it.
“If I told you more, you’d think I’m crazy,” he admits.
David then starts with another crystal in a pendulum.
“I ask it, ‘should I do this dousing for this owner at this property, may I do it, can I do it?’. If I get a yes at each one I will do it, if I don’t I won’t do it. It’s a letting go. I am putting it up to my higher consciousness when I do that. There is less chance of involving my ego,” he explained.
He uses naval bronze rods to find the water and another homemade odd looking springy gadget which moves telling him how deep the water is.
“I don’t go out to prove people wrong, I’m compassionate to them and hope they can believe something that’s beyond themselves when they see the proof,” David said.
“It’s a heck of a lot of pressure on me. It’s a lot of money to drill for a bore.”
Unsurprisingly David’s a Pisces, a water sign, and his Chinese zodiac symbol is the water snake.
“I really do like water; it’s part of life. You can’t live without it. I like the flow of it and feeling and sensing it,” he shared.
“It’s very satisfying to be able to find water for people. I love to see their faces light up when water comes out.”
In 2017 David sold his pump business on the mountain to retire and run a farm out at Boonah, but boredom took over and he’s back running Tamborine Pumps specialising in bore pumps and water divining.
“I find the bore pumps to be challenging and interesting. You can’t see what is going on when there is a problem with a bore pump. I like detective work. I like to analyse and check what’s wrong and see if I can fix it without pulling it up. It’s like a mind game,” he smiled.
