Hope Gardens House

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Welcome to the South West's

Historical Christian Community

written by David Goldberg

“Buy a camper van and go on a fishing holiday around Australia!”

These were the words that would change my life forever.

It was the year 2002 and I had been running a multi-faceted recording studio in Melbourne for the last 20 years and wearing a second hat as the senior minister of a local Christian community.

One day during prayer with some of my family there was a distinct instruction for me to buy a camper van and travel around the country and visit my home town Perth, which I had not seen for 35 yrs.

Being resistant to this idea (thinking, what would they do without me?) I proceeded to get myself ready.
Before I new it I was on the road, fishing gear hanging from the roof in my new (second hand) camper van heading slowly toward Darwin.

I had no timing structure as to where to be or what time to be back, so I pottered along the road awe struck with the beauty and vastness of our country, Australia.

As I made my way through Alice springs and up toward Catherine I felt the weight of the words the Lord had spoken to us as a Christian community several years before.

Dress yourselves in conservative Muslim style clothing because in the not too distant future, our Islamic neighbors would invade Australia from the North with great force and take over a large part of the country I was now driving through.

As I arrived in Darwin I found myself sharing this very weighty subject with many people I met, only to find that they themselves were convinced that this would happen soon enough and that this was a real and present danger in their minds also.

As I slowly traveled down the coast toward Perth I was reminded that the Lord had revealed these things to us, a small Christian community in Melbourne, for the express purpose of being used in the future to assist our nations citizens in what ever way we could when these terrible times and troubles come.

With these thoughts wafting through my mind it wasn't long before I found myself all the way down south in Busselton.

I came down with a bad cold, and stopped at a caravan park near the beach in the Dunsborough area to rest up for a while. A few days later feeling somewhat better I went for a walk around the 25 acres of the van park.

All of a sudden, standing in front of a onsite caravan that was for sale, I experienced the Lord's presence upon me and telling me to buy this van.

Feeling the need to make sure my cold hadn't distorted my brain, I rang the rest of my fellowship in Melbourne and told them what I thought the Lord had said, and to my surprise they agreed that the Lord was telling me to get this caravan site.

This now had changed my fishing trip around Australia to owning a permanent caravan in a park nearly 4000 km from my home in Melbourne, I couldn't help wonder what would happen next.

A few days later after getting accustomed to the idea that I had a semi permanent home in South West I decided to go to Dunsborough a check out the town.

Dressing the way we do as a community, it didn’t take long for me to strike up many conversations with the locals.

"Oh, I am over from the East", I said.

"What do I do?" they asked.

"I am a record producer and do a live performance rock-n- roll show."

After a few explanations like that, I had no idea what I had done. The next week’s local paper had a heading;

“Eastern states recording guru in Dunsborough”

I started to get calls asking if I could mix this band, record that country singer, do a live performance at the golf club, etc and it went on and on.

It had been a month and the calls kept coming so I either had to get back to Melbourne and disappear or do something to help these people.

Again I sort the opinion of my Christian community and after seeking the Lord they were confident that I should setup a small recording facility in the caravan park and see where these steps would take me.

Then the bubble burst. All the equipment arrived to set up the recording studio, and performance work began to flow from every where.

Here I was sitting in a 24 ft caravan across from the beach, equipment jammed in everywhere, recording country singers, and karaoke performers & poets, but I could not help the young rock bands, choirs, festivals and board meetings as I was not mobile.

It was with the Lord’s help a little later that I found a great old bus and turned it into a fully equipment mobile recording studio.

Then a big story came out in the Busselton papers about the mobile recording studio bus. Amazingly, in my next breath I was booked at the Boyupbrook Country Festival as a judge, South West idol as a judge, Bridgetown Blues festival, Nannup festival, and the list went on.

More and more I became entrenched in the South West music industry wondering what the Lord had planned for me next.

Nearly four years had past in my little caravan. Except for a few flights back to Melbourne to produce music and doing some live performances, I felt I was now a real West Australian again.

One day in 2006 I received a call from the my family in Melbourne saying,

“You need to see something we found on the internet, we think the Lord is telling you to get it.”

There before me was the largest house and gardens I had ever seen in Busselton. I felt the spirit of Jesus speak into my heart saying,

“Remember how you always wanted to have a big studio with many services and accommodation for people who wanted to stay over and fulfill there recording projects. Well here it is, I give to you.”

I almost burst into tears with the thought that my heart felt desire might come to pass. Then I looked at the price tag and the costs to make a large studio facility, and all the furniture that would be needed to make a first class executive retreat, it was well over a million dollars.

I gasped for air realising this was impossible for me to achieve. I rang the group in Melbourne back and told them how excited I was about it but how could we finance such a huge project, and to my amazement they said they believed it was God’s will for me and had already raised the deposit, and with my say so they would purchase the property for me.

The rest is history! In 2007, one year later Hope Gardens House and South West Music was opened. We operate the largest recording studio in the South West region, with an entertainment agency, video production, music school, PA & equipment hire, wedding ceremony gardens and quality accommodation.

Somehow, deep in my heart I feel that this wonderful place the Lord had given me in the future will be a great support and sanctuary for some of the people who will come running with their only possessions on their back after the invasion takes place in the North.

However, until then my hope is that you may find quality relaxed accommodation or that your musical dreams come true with us in Busselton, Western Australia.

David Goldberg is the owner of South West Music & Hope Gardens House