Songwriting Retreat

Aug 31 – Sept 3, 2024

Develop your songwriting skills and collaborate with peers amongst the beautiful rolling hills of the Border Ranges National Park.

Register your interest for 2025

Restore your wellbeing, develop your creativity and songwriting skills, and collaborate with peers in this nourishing 4-day / 3-night songwriting retreat, set amongst the beautiful rolling hills of the Border Ranges National Park.

Join us for a weekend of nature, songwriting collaboration and friendship in the Rathdowney Hinterlands, bordering the World Heritage listed Border Ranges National Park on Mununjali land, in Regional Queensland, Australia. This event is presented by I Heart Songwriting Club in celebration of their 10th year anniversary, and Wild Mountains Songs.

This 3-night creative development retreat from Sat 31 Aug to Tues 3 Sept is for 12 songwriters who are seeking connection with like-minded creatives, to develop songwriting skills and craft, and reconnect to self and nature.

If you’re coming to Brisbane to attend Australia’s biggest Music Industry Conference BIGSOUND (3-6 Sept), extend your trip by a couple of days to include this opportunity, and get more value out of your trip. This is a great inclusion for any grant applications too.

To register your interest to attend, please complete the following expression of interest form and we will be in touch with you by phone or email to discuss this with you.

Songwriting Retreat

About the Retreat

We will be staying at Wild Mountains, a purpose-built environmental education centre in Running Creek, Queensland (2 hour drive from Brisbane CBD), that has a shared philosophy of living lightly on the earth. It’s a piece of heaven that we pay our utmost respect to. There are lots of fauna sharing this space with us.

We will gather for meals and activities in the beautiful architecturally designed Hall, with an abundance of natural light and views to the rainforest. The amenities are also here. Meals will be provided for you and will consist of delicious, simple and nutritious vegetarian food, and we will rest at night overlooking the exquisite view of the Border Ranges in simple shared timber a-frame accommodation that befits the natural surroundings.

The program includes facilitated co-writing sessions, creative development workshops, intentional sharing of songs and stories, guided nature walks and meditation incorporating creativity, and an informal and intimate concert for the local Wild Mountains community.

Your retreat facilitators include I Heart Songwriting Club founder, songwriter and educator Francesca de Valence; Wild Mountains Songs founder, songwriter and National Project Manager of Green Music Australia, Emma Bosworth; and Richard Zoomers, co-founder of Wild Mountains and environmental educator.

Songwriting Retreat

About You

If you are looking for an opportunity to help elevate your songwriting and collaboration skills and experiences, we have just the thing!

Having time away in picturesque nature will help expand your creativity in ways that might not be possible in your day to day life. You will connect with a new creative network of songwriters and artists, and come away with at least three new co-written songs.

You will have already written a bunch of songs and be open to writing with new collaborators. Participants are welcome from all ages (18+), races, cultures, genders, from any country, and write songs of any genre.  You also need to have a love of good (vegetarian) food, good company, clean mountain air, and the willingness to engage in a bit of tree-hugging.

Retreat Information and Costs

Dates

Sat 31 August – Tues 3 September 2024

Where

Wild Mountains
487 Philp Mountain Road,
Running Creek QLD 4287

Get the mud map

Proposed Program

Subject to change

Sat 31 Aug
Arrive at Wild Mountains meeting place by late morning and travel together by 4WD to the retreat location in time for our welcome lunch. You will be guided by Francesca de Valence in a songwriting workshop followed by a writing session amongst the trees. Share your created work and have dinner together. The evening program will consist of facilitated songwriter conversations by fireplace.

Sun 1 Sept
Start the morning out in nature with a bush walk guided by Wild Mountains founder, Richard Zoomers. A writing session will follow a hearty breakfast in the Hall. There will be more eating and song sharing over lunch. Then allow Emma Bosworth to help you develop your creativity in unexpected ways in her creative development workshop. We’ve kept the afternoon free for time to refine your songs, rest, write, or journal. The evening program will consist of facilitated songwriter conversations by fireplace.

Mon 2 Sept
A beautiful start to the day out in nature with Richard, followed by a nourishing breakfast. We will write and eat and share songs in the morning, then the afternoon will be preparation for our informal concert for the Wild Mountains Community taking place after dinner.

Tues 3 Sept
Our final morning will start out in nature with Richard followed by breakfast in the Hall. After breakfast. we will depart as a group returning to the meeting place, and then you can make your own way home from there (or to BIGSOUND of course!).

Costs

Early bird rate is $1,600 per person and is available until June 1, 2024, with full payment due by June 1.

From June 2, the price will be $1,750 per person, with full payment due by July 31.

Costs include simple shared accommodation, workshops, activities and shared materials, transfers to and from Wild Mountains from the arranged meeting place in Running Creek, all meals and snacks (vegetarian), non-alcoholic drinks. Prices include GST. Please note, the retreat price does not include transport to and from the meeting place, however, to reduce our transport emissions we do encourage carpooling and can assist with this closer to the date

If you are applying for quick response grant funding, please apply for the full rate to incorporate the grant assessment time period.

Enrollments have been extended to August 15. 2024.

ENROLMENTS ARE CLOSED

Terms and Conditions

Our general terms of service which pertain to use of this program can be viewed here. Please see our additional terms of service for our songwriting retreat, including our cancellation policy here.

Register your interest for 2025

How you can be involved

  • We are curating a songwriting retreat in Regional Queensland for 12 songwriters over the age of 18 years old. Participation in the Event is by invitation, acceptance of agreement, and payment of Event fee.

  • To receive an invitation, the first step is to complete an Expression of Interest Form online here.

  • Upon submission of the form, you will be contacted by one of our Event organisers by phone or email to discuss. If we think you are a good fit for our Event, we will email you an invitation to participate in our Event along with an invoice for a deposit and an agreement for you to sign.

  • To confirm your place, you will need to complete your agreement and send it to us via return email, and pay a $500 deposit. We will hold your place for seven days pending the receipt of your deposit and your signed agreement. We will then send you a written confirmation of your place.

  • The balance of the payment is due by the due date indicated on your agreement. If you are booking at early bird rates, full payment is due by June 1, 2024. If you are booking at the full rate, full payment is due by July 31, 2024.

Retreat Facilitators

Emma Bosworth

Wild Mountains Songs founder, Songwriter and National Project Manager of Green Music Australia

Singer-songwriter, environmental activist and Music Industry project manager Emma Bosworth, is a long time friend of Wild Mountains Trust. In her teenage years, she attended multiple earth education camps managed by the Trust, and she says it was a major turning point in her life.

In 2016, Emma had a yearning to create time and space to create new music; she knew Wild Mountains could provide a space with big creative impact. Using her collaborative heart, she asked friends Benjamin Hale, Megan Cooper, Tim Steward, Kahl Wallis and Kellie Lloyd to join her on a weekend away amongst the trees to co-write and take some deep breaths. It was the start of something really special.

Emma purposefully creates co-writing collaborations in a way that is supportive of artists’ background and aspirations. Artists are able to strengthen existing and create new relationships with songwriters from across the country and informally learn about other artists’ creative process and new ways of co- writing. The event provides multiple opportunities for artists to connect to the land and encourages recognition of Australian songwriting talent through promotion of the project and resulting collaborative releases.

Francesca de Valence

Founder of I Heart Songwriting Club, Co-founder Whitsundays Songwriter Festival, Songwriter and Educator

Francesca de Valence is a multi-award-winning songwriter, founder of I Heart Songwriting Club, and co-founder of Whitsundays Songwriter Festival. She has been acknowledged by the Los Angeles Music Awards with an International Songwriter of the Year Award and also holds an Australian Songwriting Award. Francesca has supported artists including Jimmy Webb, her music can be heard on ABC radio around Australia.

With a heroic song catalogue of over 700 songs, 2023 saw Francesca co-writing with USA superstar Toni Childs, Aussie Bull sisters, Vika and Linda, and EMI sweetheart Mark Sholtez, as well as many cuts. Based in Brisbane, Francesca has been published by Songwriting Magazine UK, has taught at the Qld Conservatorium of Music, and has facilitated songwriting workshops worldwide with APRA AMCOS, Irish Music Rights Organisation, and Folk Alliance International.

Francesca also hosts the inspiring podcast “The Magic of Songwriting” with over 20,000 listeners.  Through her visionary work as founder of the online songwriting club – I Heart Songwriting Club – Francesca is revolutionising the songwriting space, helping birth 25,000 songs and changing the lives of thousands of songwriters worldwide.

Richard Zoomers

Co-founder of Wild Mountains and Environmental Educator

Richard emigrated from The Netherlands to Australia with his family when nearly 4 years of age. He grew up and was educated in Toowoomba. He received an Associate Diploma in Graphic Design from the Queensland College of Art in 1975 and since then has travelled extensively. From 1981 Richard worked with many conservation groups using his graphic design skills in Brisbane to save the Franklin River, the Daintree rainforests, Fraser Island and other important environmental campaigns. He was instrumental in setting up The Wilderness Shops in those areas.

Richard was co-founder and president of the Logan and Albert Conservation Association and a Community Advisory Committee representative for the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia. In 1986 Richard co-founded Wild Mountains and became president of the Wild Mountains Trust. As a current director Richard lives and works full-time at Wild Mountains education centre. He has over 30 years of experience in environmental education including the acclaimed YES high school programs during the mid 90s to ongoing programs for primary schools at Wild Mountains since that time to the present.

Want to be one of the 12 songwriters working with us?

Register your interest for 2025

The main image used on this page is taken by Jelightly Photography. Other photos on this page are courtesy of Jelightly Photography, Wild Mountains Trust, Emma Bosworth, and Francesca de Valence.