David Lim met his Irish wife[2] Joyce Davis, a nurse, while studying at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin in the 1950s and 60s.
[3] Davislim worked as a horn player in brass groups and orchestras for eight years while studying for his Bachelor of Music at the Victorian College of the Arts.
At the 1988 Melbourne Spoleto Fringe Festival, he made his debut with the Treason of Images theatre company as Jove and Sylvia[clarification needed] in La Calisto by Francesco Cavalli.
He attracted much positive attention in December 2005 with his performance in the title role of Mozart's Idomeneo at the season opening of La Scala in Milan.
[3] In 2007 he sang the lead role in the world premiere of Teneke, an opera set in 20th-century Turkey, written by the Italian composer Fabio Vacchi.
[6] In 2007 he participated, along with an all-Australian cast, in the world premiere recordings of two works by Camille Saint-Saëns: the opera Hélène (written for Davislim's Australian operatic forebear Nellie Melba), and the cantata Nuit persane, both with Orchestra Victoria conducted by Guillaume Tourniaire.