My Countrytown: Billie Rose – Charters Towers, Queensland

Regional towns are in our blood here at CountryTown! From Ballarat to Toowomba, Bendigo to Tamworth, we love the pubs, the people and the places that make Australia tick. But most of all, we love the amazing country musicians our regional centres produce, like Billie Rose.

Born and raised Charters Towers, the Brisbane-based, multi-award-winning country singer-songwriter and guitarist has created her own niche country soulful sound with songs that reveal a sincerity and depth well beyond her age. After bursting onto the scene with her highly praised debut EP Company With Regret in 2020, and her most recent single, Black Dress, she's brought yet another elegant country pop track, Label Me A Killer.

The inspiration behind Label Me A Killer was drawn from a previous long-term relationship of Billie's. Overcome with emotions and anger, she did as any singer-songwriter would do and wrote about it. In just two hours, with the help of her mum and family friend Peta Richards (musician), the song had been written. 

Billie has spent the last ten years performing at country music festivals across Queensland as well as the Tamworth Country Music Festival and also attended the CMAA Academy of Country Music in 2017. She was nominated for two Queensland Music Awards in 2021 including in the ‘Blues/Roots Category’ alongside Karl S Williams, LT and Mardi Wilson.

To get to know Billie Rose a little better, we’ve asked what she loves about Charters Towers.

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1. ‘The World’

Charters Towers, also known as ‘The World’, is a rural town North-West of Queensland, with a population of about 12,000. I was fortunate enough to have been born and bred in the small country town, where they now no longer deliver babies! Charters Towers is known for its cattle and mining industry and was founded on Christmas eve in the 1870s when 12-year-old Jupiter Mossman discovered gold.

2. Cricket

Charters Towers is the home of the Goldfield Ashes which is the largest amateur cricket carnival in the southern hemisphere; held in January every year (apart from 2021 due to COVID) since 1948. ‘The Ashes’ weekend was recently given the status of being Queensland’s Most Iconic Event. Cricket matches are played on 58 fields across the town, drawing people from all over Australia to attend. Cricket fan or not, I highly recommend experiencing this weekend!

3. Pubs

Charters Towers once had 92 pubs, now this number may be inaccurate, some sources claim as many as 104 pubs during the peak of the mining boom. Growing up, I heard many people state “There was a pub on every corner.” Currently there is 9 pubs, which is still a lot considering the towns size, I did my very first solo gig at The Waverly Hotel and continued to play at some of the different pubs over the years.

4. Charters Towers Country Music Festival

Charters Towers held the biggest country music festival in the 80’s, established in 1978. CTCMF was first known for handing out the QLD Country Music awards to established artists. Later, evolving to more of a competition-based festival; with three stages running at the same time with competitors from all over. Past winners of the festival include the likes of Sam McClymont, Brendan Walmsley, Victoria Ballie, Adi Burgess and many more. Charters Towers Country Music festival is where my music journey first began in 2009.

5. Boarding Schools

Charters Towers has three boarding schools, I graduated from All Souls St Gabriels school where majority of the student population were boarders from properties. All Souls’ for boys was established in 1920 as a memorial school to the fallen of the First World War. A year later, St Gabriel’s for girls was established, and in 1990 both schools emerged together. An interesting piece of information, during the Second World War, the boys moved to the banks of the Burdekin River whilst the school was being used as a military hospital.

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Keep up to date with Billie Rose on her Facebook page here.

For more of our My CountryTown series, check out here.