In 1991, Stoneking co-wrote and staged the first-ever poet-written, poet-acted and produced, verse play, Call It Poetry/Tonight, at the Sydney Theatre Company's Studio Theatre at the Wharf. This production was the subject of a major television documentary (which he also produced), entitled Call It Poetry. The documentary was aired on Australian national television (ABC-TV) in the mid-90s, and subsequently throughout Europe, North America and Southeast Asia.

His first, full-length dramatic play, Sixteen Words For Water (published by Harper/Collins in 1991), has been acclaimed everywhere it has been performed, including seasons in New York, Dublin, London, Sydney, and New Zealand. Its most recent incarnation, with Tim Robertson playing Ezra Pound, premiered at Melbourne's Carlton Courthouse Theatre in March, 2005. It has also enjoyed successful seasons in Washington (Harlequin Productions), and at the legendary Miniature Theatre in the Berkshires (Massachusetts, USA), as well as important Australian productions in Perth (Black Swan) and Hobart.

In the late-90s, ABC Radio National produced a radio version with Pamela Rabe and Simon Chilvers in the leading roles; and in 2000, the Burning Coal Theatre Company (North Carolina) presented a public reading of the play at the Rialto Theatre in Raleigh. Other plays include The Singing Land (CAT production, Sydney, 1993) and the ground-breaking poetry-play, Off Limits, which premiered at the Sydney Opera House in 1992, featuring Billy and actor, Roger Rynd. A radio play, Baby; and The Rite, a one-act produced by the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney, Australia, are also among his many theatre credits.

In the late 1980s, Stoneking "paid the rent" writing episodes for Paramount Television’s Mission:Impossible (which was filmed entirely in Australia); and was creator/writer of the award-winning, ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) television drama series, Stringer.

Among his numerous script-editing credits is the Australian film, Chopper, which topped the awards list at the 2000 AFI Awards in Sydney. In his introduction to Currency Press' edition of the screenplay, the film's writer/director, Andrew Dominec, affectionately referred to Billy as "the screenwriting equivalent of the drill instructor in Full Metal Jacket". His skills as an editor are in great demand and he is available for both script editing and script assessments through Script Central.

Much of Stoneking's work has been influenced and continues to be influenced by his long association with tribal Aboriginal people. From 1978 to 1983, he lived and worked at Papunya Aboriginal Settlement (275 kms west of Alice Springs, N.T.) where he collected and published stories and other materials in the local dialect [Pintupi/Luritja] for use in the Papunya outstations’ bi-lingual reading programme. In the early 80s he organised the first major exhibition of Western Desert art (outside the western desert region) at Syd's Gallery, Sydney, featuring the work of visiting artists, Nosepeg Tjupurrula, Mick Namarrari, and Tutama Tjapangarti. His film documentaries - Desert Stories (writer/narrator), Nosepeg’s Movie (producer/writer), and Pride & Prejudice - as well as other work, draw heavily on the time he spent in the desert. In 1991, he organised and participated in the historic American Walkabout Tour, which included Pintupi and Walpiri elders, Paddy Carroll Tjungurrayi and Dinny Nolan Tjampitjinpa. The nine-week tour featured standing-room-only concerts in San Francisco, Santa Cruz, San Diego (California), Santa Fe (New Mexico) and at Rough Rock Indian settlement and First and Second Mesa in Hopi Country (Arizona). Billy is conversant in several Aboriginal dialects.

Stoneking's most recent play, Eisenstein in Mexico, is the product of several years of intensive research, during which time he spent more than a year in Mexico, writing, researching and giving public readings from his work in places as diverse as San Luis Potosi, Los Mochis, Mazatlan, and San Miguel de Allende.

At present he works as a freelance writer/script editor/producer. He also is a reader/assessor for Script Central.