Roma - The Rest of Day 1

As I said in my last post, there is a lot to see at the regional town of Roma.

After we left The Big Rig we had a look at the sculpture park that runs beside the main road into town.

There is a sculpture competion and exhibition that runs from June to September each year, so we were just a bit early to see the new entries.  However, there were some beauties on display from previous years.  Here are just  few that caught our eye.

Notice the top knot pigeon sitting in the top of the bottle tree.

Aren't there some clever people.  Mick reckons there must be no scrap metal laying around these days.

Having heard about the "Largest Bottle Tree in Roma" we had to find it.  Fortunately, it was well signposted.

This gives you an idea of its size.

The Queensland Bottle Tree is a native of Queensland and no relative to the Boab Trees that grow in Western Australia or elsewhere in the world.  It is related to the kurrajong tree and they both have similar seed pods and are extremely drought tolerant. Bottle Trees in the wild are now protected.  We always enjoy spotting them in paddocks on our travels.

Speaking of Bottle Trees, we've never seen so many as in Roma.  They even have a living war memorial "The Hero's Avenue" made up of 93 Bottle Trees. 

Each one has a brass plaque commerating a local serviceman from WWI.  The avenue was planted between 1918 and 1920.

Of course, we had to have a wander up and down the street to check out the old buildings.  There are some fine examples.  This splendid old pub, which no longer trades as a pub, is gorgeous.  During WWII a look out was stationed in the tower to keep an eye out for Japanese war planes.

The court house's clain to fame is having been the site of the trial of the bushranger Captain Starlight.  It's interesting how he was captured ...... all due to a light coloured bull.

This building was quite a landmark, especially with its shamrock features.  There is a brochure talking about the historic buildings in the town.  However, it seems to talk about locations and what used to be there, rather than what is there now.  Consequently, this one did not even rate a mention.

Mr Google came to the rescue.  It is the "Hibernian Hall".  It was established by the Hiberian Australasian Catholic Benefit Society (H.A.C.B.A.).  There were a large number of Irish in Queensland, encouraged to emigrate by the Catholic Church.  Often branches of this society were set up to support people within that community.  The Roma branch built a hall in the early 1900s, which seated 750 people, but it burnt down in the 1920s.  The current building was constructed in 1932 and used as both a hall and cinema.  It was purchased by the Roma Council in 1976 and is still used today.  The library is in an adjoining building.

Golders is an institution in these south west Queensland towns, being a supplier of all sorts of country clothing, footwear, hats and toys, of all things.

I did like the mural on the side of the building.

And, of course, no visit to Roma is complete without a visit to Ace Drapery, especially if you are a crafter.  As soon as you say you are going to, or have been to Roma, you are asked if you went to "that shop"?  Well, yes, we did.  There is also other craft items, haberdashery and household items, but we didn't venture too far in.  All rather overwhelming.  Apparently, the owner can locate whatever it is you are after, but where do you start? 

And that about sums up the rest of our first day in Roma.  Told you there was lots to see. 

More soon. 

Roma - Day 1 - The Big Rig

In our general wandering around on our recent trip, Roma was one place we definitely wanted to visit, and to make sure we were there on a Tuesday.  We arrived on a Sunday, so all went to plan.

Roma was declared the tourism town of Queensland in 2024 and we can see why.  For a town with a population of just over 7,000 it punches well above its weight.  We last visited here in 2003 and didn’t spend a lot of time on that occasion.

We started our first day by going for a walk.  Here, we started to see Queenslander style homes.  We always love to see the high set weatherboard houses.  Concave verandahs, like on the cream walled house, are something that you don’t seem to see anywhere else.

Our first destination was the Information Centre located at The Big Rig. The Big Rig is an outdoor museum featuring the natural gas industry in the area.  We opted to buy the daytime ticket as well as the evening ticket.  Both very enjoyable.

Before we went in we had a little look at a historic slab cottage that is in the same area.  

The history of this building is interesting.  Just imagine a family of eleven living in this tiny space.  Mind you, as the weather is much warmer in Roma than we are used to, I’m sure the boys would have all slept outside on the verandah, as was often the norm in those days.

It was a nice little showcase into a simpler time.

Now, for a bit of Roma’s history since European settlement……

The Roma area was initially settled by pastoralists in the late 1840s, with the township of Roma being established in 1862.  In the 1880s the railway came to Roma.  There wasn’t a wonderful water supply, as the town is not located by a river, so they started to drill for water bores in the early 1900s.  To their annoyance, when drilling they struck gas, not water.  This happened at a couple of locations.  They did reach water eventually.  After five years of the gas going unchecked, some bright spark decided that they could harness the gas.  A holding tank was built and gas street lighting installed.  It was a wonderful sight…..until the gas petered out after only 10 days. It must have been very disappointing.

However, there continued to be interest in drilling for gas and there was quite a boom from the 1920s.  Then there was the inevitable bust in the 1930s.

Alongside agriculture, there is still a significant natural gas industry based around Roma to this day, with much being exported.  I’m pretty sure that the natural gas that we have here in Bathurst is piped from Roma.  There is quite a bit of controversy about the natural gas industry at present, but that is a story we won’t go into here.

Back to The Big Rig.

The main feature of The Big Rig is, funnily enough, a big drilling rig.  This rig, the EMSCO Rig, was imported from America along with some experts to oversee it.  It arrived in 1928 and was used at four different sites, being finally decommissioned in 1941.  It was steam driven.  After it was decommissioned, some parts were scavanged, but the main part was left abandoned out in the scrub.  It was eventually decided to dismantle it and bring it into town and the museum be created around it.

There are also several other machines and vehicles from the gas industry.  Rather odd looking and don’t mean a lot to me.

One thing that wasn’t there when we visited in 2003 is the Big Rig Tower.  This is so very impressive.  

It stands the same height as the drilling rig and you can go up by the stairs or a lift.  We were lazy and went up the lift and we were so pleased we did.  

You walk in and the walls are all like TV screens.  It’s like you have entered the lift with some workers.  As you go up it is like you are going up the inside of the rig and you are seeing the landscape from the height you are at.  At various spots you see workers climbing the ladder on the outside of the rig, and when you reach the top there is a fellow sitting on top of the rig.  So very clever.

Once you step out onto the viewing platform you get the best bird’s eye view of Roma and the surrounding countryside.  You also look straight across to the top of the rig.

Mick, being reluctantly compliant for the touristy photo.

We the took the option of descending the tower by the stairs.

Another new feature was a treetop walk beside the creek, in among the birds.  Rather pleasant.

Once we had seen all we wanted to see, it was time to do some more exploring during the day.  I’ll get back to that later.

Late in the afternoon, it was time to return to The Big Rig as we wanted to go up the tower again to see the sunset.  As you can see, there wasn’t a sunset, as it was cloudy, but we did get to see a hawk sitting at the top of the rig.  A perfect vantage point.

The evening event was also good.  Firstly we went to the base of the rig where we learnt some more information about it and the history.

Don’t the two towers look wonderful in the evening light.

Then there is a light and sound and display telling interesting stories.  The highlight is the big flames as they tell of how one of the gas wells caught fire and burnt for ages.  It was a big tourism drawcard, with people travelling from Brisbane to see it and there were postcards printed.  The fire was finally extinguished when a clever fellow worked out a way to move a big dome across to the well by cables and then drop it down to snuff out the flames.

It is a very touristy attraction, but well done and we learned lots about a major part of the town’s history and current industry. Definitely worth the visit.

Meandarra to Roma

After our overnight at Meandarra, it was time to continue west towards Surat.  

We were in big sky country.  

The first place we came to was the village of Glenmorgan, which declares itself to be the end of the line, as this is as far as the railway came.  It has an interesting history.

The station building has been relocated to rest area beside the road.  Very handy these Queensland buildings being built using weatherboards.

Beside it was the original town gaol.

Over beside where the railway used to go there was the original crane using for loading freight.  Mick loves climbing over these old relics and this one was beauty, being complete, and as it turned out, fully functional.

The old service station was still there, even with the vintage bowsers.  It looks like something out of a western movie.

I think the A1 Used Car yard doesn’t do a lot of business.  Mind you, there were some interesting old relics that had For Sale signs on them.  Fun to have a look at.

Time to get back on the road and have lunch at Surat, on the Bolonne River.  It was Mick’s birthday, so we had a very low key celebratory lunch of fish and chips in the park.

The park was really nice and featured some Queensland bottle trees.

Surat’s main claim to fame is this is where the last Cobb and Co stagecoach run took place.  I found that interesting, as Cobb and Co had their foundation and head office at Bathurst.  There is a nice museum on the site of the staging post.

On display is a replica Cobb and Co stagecoach. We have an original one on display in Bathurst…just saying…

The museum was interesting, and well set out.  This region was originally settled by sheep and cattle farmers and in the early 1950s there was a serious flood.  This steel hulled boat was used to ferry and therefore save many sheep from the flood waters.  

What a mammoth effort by so many men.  The sheep would have been extremely heavy with wet fleeces.

In the adjoining Visitor Information Centre there is a huge aquarium featuring fish found in the Bolonne River.  This is a small Murray Cod.

We went for a wander around town.  The original shire hall is a rather stunning timber building.

The current council offices were built in the 1960s and are somewhat out of place amongst the older buildings.

The post office is in a nice old building.  There was a cairn out the front to commemorate the last Cobb and Co run.

On the wall of one building was a huge mural made out of corrugated iron with the details cut out.

How clever.  Look at the detail in this Murray Cod,.

In the park there is the local was memorial.  The plaques were well polished, which was surprising to see.  

We were impressed that the main memorial in town was the Town Water Scheme.  That was definitely a lasting legacy that would improve everyone’s lives.

Once again, the town was well maintained with beautiful parks and interpretive signs for historic buildings.  A credit to the council.

Once we were back on the road we saw some paddocks sown to oats, not what we expected out this way.

We finished our day by setting up at a caravan park at Roma and were treated to a rather gorgeous sunset.