[2] By the age of sixteen she had a weekly column in the Hobart Mercury, and in 1981 won the Tasmanian Short Story Prize.
[11] Four of Rose's adult novels have been set in Tasmania – Bruny, White Heart, The Butterfly Man, and The River Wife.
Murray Waldren in The Australian said: "Spirituality permeates Heather Rose's first novel, White Heart, as much as the past haunts it.
[18] It is set in the central highlands of Tasmania and has received significant acclaim from reviewers and readers where it has been hailed for the beauty of its storytelling.
And The River Wife dives even more deeply into the central highlands, the very heart of Tasmania, and finds there a story, a myth, a fable that is uniquely Tasmanian.
[21] Rose's fourth adult novel, The Museum of Modern Love (2016), is set in New York and inspired by the performance artist Marina Abramović.
[31] A political satire, thriller, family saga and love story, Bruny is a prescient look at the new world order and the relationship between China and Australia.
[48] In January 2022, the world premiere of a play adapted from The Museum of Modern Love by Tom Holloway was staged at the Sydney Festival.
As of October 2021[update] it was in development as a television series with producers Charlotte Seymour and Sue Maslin.
[50] [51] In April 2022 Screen Australia announced funding for a number of projects, including a six-part television series based on Bruny.
[53] Growth of Coo'ee and the success of its campaigns led to Rose being named Telstra Tasmanian Business Woman of the Year 2004.
[57] The festival and Green Team Australia received both the Tasmanian and the national 2010 Australian Business Arts Foundation (ABAF) Award for SMEs, through a partnership created by Rose.
[58] Rose has been an inaugural mentor in the Tasmanian Leaders Program, which trains business people in leadership excellence.