Roma, Queensland: The 'Capital of the Western Downs'
The self-styled ‘Capital of the Western Downs’, the prosperous rural town of Roma straddles the junction of the Carnarvon and Warrego Highways, 480km west of Brisbane.
When Thomas Mitchell explored the area in May 1846, he described the countryside around Roma as “the finest country I have ever seen — a champaign (sic) region of open country … an abundance of good pasturage, stretching as far as human vision or even the telescope could reach.” Twenty years later, when it was little more than a settlement with three pubs, the town was named Roma after Lady Diamantina Bowen (nee di Roma), the wife of Sir George Bowen, the Governor of Queensland at the time.
The town is named after Lady Diamantina Bowen (nee di Roma)
Roma is the administrative centre and service hub of the Maranoa Region which spans more than 58,000sq km. Agricultural production is worth approximately $620 million annually, with livestock grazing the predominant land use, followed by dryland cropping. The town sits on the western fringe of the vast Surat Basin and was the site of Australia’s first oil and natural gas discovery in 1900. Since then, more reserves have been discovered and are currently being developed by the Santos GLNG joint venture. Forestry is also an important contributor to the regional economy, supported by a number of timber processing facilities.
Roma has a resident population of around 7000, about eight per cent of whom identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Amenities include a swimming pool, golf course, bowling green, showground and a full range of medical services. The CBD has a cosmopolitan feel with boutiques and specialty retailers, espresso bars and cafes, restaurants and pubs, all within a four-block radius. Several heritage-listed buildings are also located in or near the town centre. Travellers are well-catered for with a visitor information centre and a wide selection of accommodation that includes hotels, motels and five caravan parks.
Settlement and conflict
Before the arrival of European settlers, the Mandandanji Aboriginal people occupied 40,000sq km of tribal territory across the Maranoa and Balonne River catchments, taking in the sites of the present-day towns of Roma, Mitchell, Surat, Chinchilla, Yuleba and Saint George.
During their 1846 expedition through the region, explorers Thomas Mitchell and Edmund Kennedy encountered a community of around 200 Aboriginal people. After initial friendly contact, hostilities arose when the Mandandanji tried to burn down the explorers’ encampment. On his return to Sydney, Mitchell’s glowing reports of the Maranoa’s grazing potential encouraged settlers to take up pastoral leases in the region. However, they were met with fierce resistance by an alliance of local tribes led by a Mandandanji warrior named Bussamarai (aka Eaglehawk).
Between 1848 and 1852, Indigenous warriors waged a guerilla campaign against the white intruders, burning homesteads, killing shepherds and stealing stock, and many stations had to be abandoned. Contingents of the newly formed Native Police and armed pastoralists mounted bloody reprisals that inflicted heavy losses on the Mandandanji. Native resistance was finally broken in November 1852, when the troopers “dispersed with severe means” a large group of Aboriginal people, killing at least six including Bussamarai. British control of the region was ensured with the establishment of a Native Police barracks at Bungil Creek and the previously abandoned pastoral stations were peacefully re-occupied.
Sunset over the tranquil Railway Dam and Bush Gardens
The township of Roma
Stephen Spencer took up the Mount Abundance pastoral run in 1857 and by 1860 he had transformed the station homestead into a supply depot for the district. Within a year, a shanty town grew up 7km to the south at Reid’s Crossing on Bungil Creek. In 1862, the site was surveyed and named Roma, earning the distinction of being the first town gazetted in the new colony of Queensland.
Through the latter part of the 19th century, the fledgling town grew rapidly and prospered on the back of cattle and sheep grazing, wheat and grain cropping, flour-milling, dairy farming and vineyards. Its economic enterprises were fostered by connection to the telegraph (1866) and railway (1880). A courthouse built in 1864 was the venue for the famous trial (and acquittal) in 1873 of bushman and cattle rustler, Harry Readford, sometimes referred to (incorrectly) as Captain Starlight. The original courthouse was replaced in 1910 by the impressive present one.
In 1900, natural gas was discovered in artesian bores on Hospital Hill, and the Roma Gas Works was constructed to separate the gas from artesian water and supply fuel for the town’s lighting. In 1961, a gas-fired electricity-generation plant was commissioned to electrify the town. The subsequent discovery of oil near Roma and Moonie, 260km to the southeast, led to the establishment of the Maranoa Oil Refinery in 1975. Although providing a tiny portion of Australia’s petro-gas output, the town’s share the honour of pioneering the local industry, celebrated at Roma’s Big Rig theme park.
The Driller statue at the Big Rig theme park
The natural environment
Roma enjoys a humid subtropical climate. Its location at 300m above sea level on the far south of the Carnarvon Range renders the environment cooler and wetter than the surrounding plains to the south and west, while being warmer and drier than areas to the north and east. Summers are hot with moderate rain; winters are mild and dry. The annual average rainfall of 590mm is distributed fairly evenly throughout the year.
The Maranoa landscape around Roma is a picturesque mosaic of poplar box woodlands on broad alluvial plains, watercourses fringed by blue gums and river red gums, undulating hills interspersed with low plateaus and rugged ridges blanketed by open forests of brigalow and casuarina. These diverse terrestrial and aquatic habitats support numerous species of plants and animals, including many of ‘conservation significance’.
Bungil Creek flows through the town and is part of the Balonne River catchment within the Murray-Darling Basin. The creek’s flow varies significantly from a small trickle to a raging torrent after heavy rain. In March 2010, Roma experienced its worst floods in over 100 years, with the creek peaking at 8.1m. Flooding occurred again in April 2011 after record rainfall. Then, in February 2012, Roma was devastated by its worst floods in history, eclipsing the 2010 level and inundating 444 homes — twice as many as were flooded in the two previous years.
Three successive years of disastrous floods prompted Suncorp to announce in May 2012 that it would not renew insurance policies to Roma residents unless action was taken to mitigate the flood risk. In response, the Queensland government funded the construction of a 5.2km levee along the creek’s southern bank to protect the town.
One of the best places to experience the town’s natural setting is on the Adungadoo Pathway, which takes its name from the Mandandanji word for Bungil Creek. The Pathway begins near a huge bottle tree in the Loam Reserve at the end of Edwardes Street. The tree is the largest of its kind in Roma, standing 15m tall with a crown spreading 23m and a girth of more than 9m. With origins believed to date back to the 19th century, the tree was transplanted to its present location from a local property in 1927 and has become one of the town’s best-known attractions.
From the giant bottle tree, the Pathway shadows beautiful Bungil Creek along a 1.7km concrete paved track shared with walkers, joggers and cyclists. The creek here is edged by ancient river gums, some dated to 400 years old, tall coolabahs and silky oaks whose golden flowers in spring attract many birds. Interpretative signs provide information about the flora, fauna and local Aboriginal culture, and rest shelters along the way afford opportunities to sit and absorb the peaceful ambience of the creek-side environment.
Other natural attractions are the Railway Dam and Roma Bush Gardens at the corner of Duke and Mayne Streets. Originally built in the 19th century to supply water for passing steam trains, the dam is now surrounded by gardens in a 14ha reserve planted with native trees and flowering plants endemic to the Maranoa region. The reserve can be explored on a circuit walkway and is an outstanding place for bird watching.
The Railway Dam and Bush Gardens are a beautiful natural attraction
The Big Rig
The Big Rig is undoubtedly Roma’s premier tourist attraction. Located at 2 Riggers Road, this visitor information and theme park complex includes the Oil Patch Museum, a $7m tribute to the pioneers of Australia’s oil and gas industry. The history from local discovery to one of the nation’s most important industries is revealed through a series of interpretative panels, audio-visual presentations, exhibits, fully restored rigs, machinery displays, guided tours and night shows. Built from rough-hewn cypress pine in 1893, the Lenroy Slab Hut stands nearby in stark contrast to the modern technology and engineering marvels at the Big Rig. The hut serves as a reminder of the simplicity and harshness of life in the bush for settlers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The Big Rig celebrates Roma’s pioneering oil industry
Roma Saleyards
Located on the Warrego Highway just before The Big Rig, the Roma Saleyards is the largest cattle selling facility in the Southern Hemisphere, processing more than 400,000 cattle each year at auctions every Tuesday and Thursday morning (subject to cattle numbers). A free guided tour is available on sale days and no bookings are required. A state-of-the-art interpretative centre, highlighting the development of the region’s cattle industry, is open from 8am to 5pm every day.
The Roma saleyards are the largest in the southern hemisphere
The Avenue of Heroes
Heroes Avenue is a unique, living memorial commemorating citizens of the Roma district who died in service or were killed in action during World War I. The ‘monument’ comprises 93 bottle trees, one for each serviceman, planted in a line along Wyndham Street. The first tree (known locally as the ‘Tree of Knowledge’) was planted in a ceremony in 1918 to honour Lance Corporal Norman Saunders who was killed in France in 1916. The rest of the avenue was planted by 1920. Each tree originally bore a brass name plate for the subject serviceman. Only one of these plaques survives and has been incorporated in a cairn displaying all 93 names located outside the Post Office near the corner of McDowell and Wyndham Streets. A cenotaph in Queen’s Park, at the end of the avenue of bottle trees, honours the World War I fatalities as well the 39 men who died in Word War II. Behind it stand nine pine trees grown from seeds collected at Lone Pine, Gallipoli.
The cenotaph stands in Queens Park at the end of the Avenue of Heroes
Historic Town Walk
Armed with an excellent brochure from the visitor centre, tourists can explore Roma’s fascinating history on a self-guided walk around the town centre, which includes a number of historic buildings among 25 places of interest. Here are some of the more notable ones.
St Paul’s Anglican Church, on the corner of Bungil and Arthur Streets, was designed by Sydney-born architect, Walter Carey Voller, to replicate a 13th century English church in the shape of a crucifix. It was consecrated in 1915 and replaces a timber church built on the site in 1875. The main features of this attractive church are 11 superb leadlight and 39 stain-glass windows, with the oldest dating back to 1876.
St Paul’s Anglican Church (1915) features superb stained-glass windows
Located on Arthur Street and wedged between Elders Real Estate and Go-Farm, the Christian Outreach Centre is housed in a building that was once the local Congregational Church. Built in 1872, it is possibly Roma’s oldest surviving public building.
Established in 1875, the Western Star is one of the longest serving local newspapers in Queensland and operates from a marvellously incongruous timber building with a bullnose veranda at 120 McDowall Street.
Standing proudly on the corner of Hawthorne and McDowall Streets, the School of Arts Hotel was opened in 1918. It has a huge veranda and an unusual, glassed turret which was used as a lookout for spotting enemy aircraft during World War II.
It has fared better than the historic Royal Hotel on McDowall Street, which has burned down and been re-built no less than four times since it first opened in 1870. The hotel now operates as the ‘Royal on Ninety-Nine’ and is one of the most modern and stylish pubs in the region, with a cafe, dining split over two levels and four bars, including a rooftop bar.
Also on McDowall Street, the Queen’s Arms Hotel (trading as Irish McGann’s) stands next to the heritage-listed Hunter’s Emporium (now Ace Draper), both constructed in 1916. The two-storey brick department store is important for demonstrating the expansion of general retailing in regional Queensland, in particular reflecting the growth of Roma as a major centre during the early twentieth century.
The Queen’s Arms Hotel (1916) is one of Roma’s finest historic buildings
Located at 75 Arthur Street, the heritage listed Ladbrook’s Butchery was built in 1919 as one of only six State butcher shops in a network designed to provide cheaper meat to families in regional Queensland in the years 1915–1929. The Roma shop was considered an important distribution centre for meat supplied from the State-owned Charleville Meatworks.
James Saunders established his chemist and dentist business on the corner of McDowall and Arthur Street in 1871. A chemist still operates there (with James’ name above the awning) and claims to be longest continuous pharmacy site in Australia.
Contact information
Maranoa Regional Council
Cnr Bungil and Quintin Streets, Roma
P: 07 4624 6990 / 1300 007 662
E: customer.roma@maranoa.qld.gov.au
Roma Aussie Tourist Park
6 Bowen Street, Roma
P: 07 4622 6464
E: ask@romaaussie.com.au
Roma Big Rig Tourist Park
4 McDowall Street, Roma
P: 07 4622 2538
E: stay@bigrig.net.au
Roma Gun Club Caravan & Camping Park
155 Geoghegan Road, Roma
P: 0476 674 514
E: bookings@romagunclub.com.au
Roma Visitor Information Centre
2 Riggers Road, Roma
P: 07 4624 0204
E: tourism@maranoa.qld.gov.au
Open seven days a week 9am–5pm
Ups N Downs Caravan Park and Farm Stay
78 Hartleys Lane, 5km north of Roma
P: 0407 740 252
E: kathycrozier2@outlook.com
Villa Holiday Park
67–75 Northern Road, Roma
P: 07 4622 1309
E: ask@villaholidaypark.com.au
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