About Roma
Roma is a substantial rural service centre which lies at the heart of a rich sheep and cattle grazing area. From the 1840s it has been seen as a land of plenty with Sir Thomas Mitchell describing the countryside as “the finest country I had ever seen in a primeval state – a champaign region, spotted with wood, stretching as far as human vision or even the telescope could reach.” Today, calling itself the Capital of the Western Downs, it is a prosperous town with a number of historic buildings and considerable pride in the fact that it was the first place, in the vast Surat Basin, to discover gas and oil (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).
Getting there
Leaving Sandstone Park, in Carnarvon Gorge, we trundled back along the road for 40kms to the highway behind 6 other caravans (was like a train!), stopping to allow the cattle to move off or across the road multiple times (it’s actually quite funny). Turning right we headed south for 206kms toward Roma.
A stop-over at Café On Second for coffees in Injune was a nice break before heading off again to Roma.
Accommodation
Our selected accommodation was the Roma Gun Club Caravan Park and it was with a bit of uncertainty and trepidation as we rolled up and checked in for a 4 night stay. The caravan park is sort of part of the Gun Club’s carpark but after settling in we found that it was a good choice after all. We also had a look at the other caravan parks whilst in Roma and agreed that this one came out on top.
Clay Target Shooting
Turning up on a Thursday turned out to be opportunistic as they have a “clay shoot” afternoon available to the CP guests for $15 per head.
You get 2 shots at each of 5 stations, using only the bottom barrel of an “under & over” shotgun.
Club stalwart, Iain Campbell (AKA Lumpie), was our coach and he took us through all of the process to safely blow an orange hand sized piece of clay out of the sky.
Scores were – Neil – 3 hits, Liam-1 hit, Merrisa & Jackie both had 0 hits. We all had a ball!
Merrisa flies home
Merrisa flew out after our 1st night heading home for 6 days to attend a special wedding. Neil’s hoping that she makes it back in time to begin our Bailey Tagalong in Mudjimba on the 25th of August.
Up the Creek Garage
Looking for things to do in Roma we discovered the Up the Creek Garage which is a collection of old cars a couple, Robert and Edith Burton, who have built up their collection as one of the major tourist attractions in town (maplink).
They even have 2 Texas Longhorn cattle in their set-up. It was a bit sad to see two large animals housed in a pretty small corral and I’m hoping they can get out to “stretch the legs” on a regular basis.
The Big Rig
Located behind the Roma tourist info centre the Big Rig is a great place to visit (maplink) to discover the history of oil and gas exploration in the area.
A message board type of self managed tour takes you through the history of the search for oil & gas and is absolutely amazing learning about this history dating back to the 1800’s.
A viewing tower takes you up 195 steps to a platform which provides a vista over all of Roma. If you’re feeling a bit tired or lazy you can cheat and use the lift instead of the steps. The 2nd level of the tower opens up to a tree walk beside the creek and it was really hard to fathom how this small quiet creek has flooded the town multiple times.
Roma’s Sculptures Out Back
We were fortunate to time our visit to Roma at the same time as the Sculptures of the Outback Exhibition was being run. The inaugural Sculptures Out Back Acquisitive Competition and Exhibition was hailed a huge success when it was launched in Roma last year.
The quality of the work was truly amazing. The images below also contain the story board displayed on each art piece. The ranges of pricing was rather interesting and the number sold (đź”´ red dots) was impressive.
The Largest Bottle Tree in Roma
Every town in country Australia tends to have a “BIG” something and in Roma it’s the Largest Bottle Tree!
Roma’s largest bottle tree, which has the incredible girth of 9.62 metres, a height of 15 metres and a crown of 23 metres, was transplanted by Roma Town Council to its present location from a local property in 1927. The tree was fairly well grown at the time of the transplant and quite possibly originated in the nineteenth century. They say that no trip to Roma is complete without a selfie with the Big Bottle Tree!
Summing up…
- Accommodation – Roma Gun Club 0476Â 674Â 514
- Cost per night – $25.00 (@ 18-Aug-2022)
- Stayed for – 4 nights
- Facilities – Very good – part of the members club
- CP Location – 155 Geoghegan Rd Roma
- Our rating/score – 8/10
- Was it a nice town to visit? – Yes
- Activities & places of interest – Not much to do here – I think we covered it all with what’s in the post above
- Tourist info centre? – 2 Riggers Rd, Roma (07) 4622 8676
- Would we return? – Probably not
- We rate the town – 7/10
- Overall thoughts – We enjoyed our stay here but would probably not return (been there & seen that), but if we were we’d definitely stay at the Gun Club again.
