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.
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.
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
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.