King’s Birthday Honours: Humble local musician and teacher Guy Ghouse receives Order of Australia

WA musician and teacher Guy Ghouse, best known for performing alongside acclaimed Noongar singer Gina Williams, has been recognised in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours.

The guitarist said becoming a Member of the Order of Australia was “an honour and humbling”, but he was initially reluctant to accept the accolade.

Williams, who received the same honour in 2021, said her musical partner was a worthy recipient.

“Guy, in his own right, has been an exceptional contributor to the WA arts and music community for a really long period of time,” she said, highlighting Ghouse’s efforts to “elevate” First Nations artists dating back to before their Noongar-language collaborations began in 2010.

Ghouse was born in Perth in January 1969, 10 days after his Malaysian-born parents arrived in Australia on a Norwegian cargo boat.

Boasting Chinese, Indian, French, Scottish, Irish, Portuguese and Dutch heritage, Ghouse is a third-generation musician.

A defining moment in his childhood came when his parents moved to Fitzroy Crossing to teach music.

“I didn’t do too well at school for a bunch of different reasons,” Ghouse explained, “but when I went up to Fitzroy Crossing, I was learning via correspondence and was able to get my schoolwork done early so I could pick up the guitar and play.”

In the Kimberley, the young musician was also exposed to remote Indigenous communities and fell in love with the culture and landscape.

After borrowing his father’s guitars, Ghouse bought his first guitar using money raised mowing lawns at age 14.

Purchased while visiting family in Singapore, the red Fender Stratocaster was in honour of his guitar hero, Perth-based Shadows legend Hank Marvin, who has been in the audience at two of Ghouse’s performances with Williams.

While he first met Williams when she was presenting shows on the Golden West Network in Broome, they didn’t start performing together until 2010.

Six-time winners of Indigenous act of the year at the WA Music Industry Awards, the duo have released four Noongar-language albums, starting with Kalyakoorl in 2012 and most recently 2021’s Koort.

They also created the Noongar opera Wundig wer Wilura, which opened the Perth Festival in 2024.

Ghouse, who was named best guitarist at the awards in 2020, said they copped “quite vicious and racist” hate mail from “keyboard ghosts” when the Noongar-language project began, but it soon disappeared.

The 56-year-old said, the collaboration strangely feels like a natural progression from his early days playing blues in regional pubs.

“When I started to work with Gina and we decided to pursue Gina’s language, it was so authentic and connected, meaningful on so many levels,” Ghouse explained from a Northbridge studio where he was recording a song for Albany’s bicentennial in 2026.

“It was humbling to have the opportunity to play music in that way.”

Ghouse and Williams recently returned from Japan where they represented Australia at the 2025 World Expo in Osaka.

Guy has been an exceptional contributor to the WA arts and music community for a really long period of time.

“The Japanese people were absolutely mesmerised,” he said. “So much so that they’ve invited us back.”

Other highlights include performing at Australia House in London and at the 2021 AFL Grand Final in Perth.

Ghouse said a “lightbulb moment” came while he was teaching music in the remote Bidaydanga community south of Broome in the late 90s.

A visiting health worker complained that her job would be easier if local elders learnt to speak a bit of English.

“I said ‘Well, you’re on this country, wouldn’t it work better if you met them halfway and learnt a few words’,” he said.

Ghouse then wrote songs in Karajarri language with local musician Mervyn Mulardy to help connect Indigenous and non-Indigenous parts of the community.

The musician said the Order of Australia honour is “kwop”, the Noongar word for “good”, and proof that a lack of tertiary qualifications should not hold anybody back.

In 1989, Ghouse quit his studies at the WA Academy of Performing Arts to join the beloved multicultural Gunada Band in Broome.

He later returned to WAAPA to teach the Aboriginal musical theatre course.

“Universities and tertiary institutions aren’t the only avenues to achieving your goals in music,” Ghouse said. “It takes hard work, love and passion.”