ROMA

18^th May, 2016

On the way to Roma we stop for a couple of nights in Dirribandi. We have stopped here so that we can take a tour of Cubbie Station – a cotton farm just inside the Queensland border. The station first commenced operations in 1984 and is situated in a floodplain between the Culgoa and Balonne Minor Rivers. At 80,000 hectares it is one of the biggest cotton farms in the southern hemisphere and has a water storage capacity of 462,000 megalitres. Our tour vehicle is a four wheel drive and there are two other couples along for the ride. We enter the property only a few kilometres from town and drive and drive and drive along kilometres of fields and water storage areas with channels running in every direction.

Driving along the embankments on Cubbie Station

The whole of outback Queensland has been under drought conditions for a number of years and Cubbie Station has also been affected. Of the 88 fields developed into furrow irrigation only two or three will be planted with cotton this year because of the drought. The station depends on floods to keep its water storage areas at full capacity with some storages 8 metres deep. After driving for more than two hours we have only seen a couple of storage areas which actually have water in them.

One of the water storage areas on Cubbie Station

Cubbie Station's production is irrigated agriculture and they can grow a variety of irrigated crops such as cotton, wheat, sorghum, barley, chickpeas, sunflowers, mungbeans and soybeans. Principally they grow cotton as it provides the highest gross margin. In full swing they employ over 120 full time staff and approximately 10,000 trailer loads of cotton are taken to the cotton gin. That equates to 4,400 road trains from Cubbie Station. The figures are staggering. We just can't get our heads around the picture of 4,400 road trains loaded with cotton trundling back and forth along these embankments. We are between the harvesting and planting cycles so only routine maintenance is being carried out now. We have been driving around the station for nearly three hours and have only seen a small portion of the property. To say we were impressed by its size would be an understatement.

The following day we arrive at Roma and slot ourselves onto a powered site at the local clay target shooting club. The club is on the outskirts of town and is nice and quiet – except for Thursday nights and Saturdays when the members practise their shooting abilities. This provides a different kind of entertainment for us though and everyone is very friendly with a barbecue dinner at the clubhouse on Thursdays. Roma was settled after explorer Sir Thomas Mitchell reported glowingly on the country in 1846. Like many outback towns Roma was reliant on rather scanty rainfall and in the late 19^th century looked closely at the potential of underground water. In 1881 the first attempt to drill for water was made with only a little success. A second attempt was made at a different location in 1899 and at 3684 feet natural gas was encountered. Roma has strong historic as well as current links with natural gas production and is centrally positioned in an area of large reserves of petroleum, gas and coal seam gas.

One of the first things you notice when driving around Roma is the abundance of Bottle Trees growing along its streets. The bottle trees are native to the area and can grow to over 200 years old. This is one reason why the town has introduced them to the streetscape. Towards the end of World War I the town council sought to establish an avenue of suitable trees to honour their fallen soldiers and the bottle tree was chosen because the trees could be planted in a mature form, thus avoiding the depredations of the many mobs of feral goats which then roamed the town. In 2003 plaques were placed at each tree with information found regarding a particular soldier. On Anzac Day each year wreaths are placed on each tree.

One of the bottle trees in the Avenue of Honour in Roma

The largest Bottle Tree in Roma is located at the end of Edwardes Street near parkland. The tree was transplanted by the council from a local property in 1927. As the tree was fairly well grown at the time of the transplant its age is unknown. It stands 6 metres tall with a crown of 20 metres and has a girth of 9.5 metres. It sure is a big bottle tree.

Wok thought the Big Bottle Tree in Roma needed a hug ..

We've been told about a shop in Roma that is said to be worth looking in. On enquiring where it might be located the answer was “just drive along the main street and when you see a lot of boxes out front you're there”. Couldn't be more easier directions than that eh? Well we did as we were told and yep! There were the boxes as well as other stuff stacked along the footpath.

Boxes and stuff on the footpath nearly hide the entrance to the shop.

We went inside. OMG! Rows and rows of stuff – packed to the ceiling. Bolts of cloth and textiles in one aisle

Looks like Wok has spotted something he wants on the top shelf ...

colourful ribbons of all sizes in another aisle

Ribbons ... Ribbons ... Ribbons

and shelves and boxes of wool that would have kept a hundred knitters busy for ages.

Wool ...Wool ... Wool

And that was just three aisles – there were aisles of kitchen utensils, clothes, manchester and 'who knows what'. High up on the sides were cardboard boxes stacked on dusty cardboard boxes. There was stuff everywhere. It would be a nightmare trying to do a stock inventory. We're pretty sure that there were things there that hadn't seen the light of day for years. Yep this shop was definitely well worth having a look at!

The Information Centre in Roma is situated at The Big Rig. The rig is not hard to miss as you head along the highway and is a memorial to the pioneers of Australia's gas and oil industry. We take a self guided walk through a series of interpretative signs and panels embellished by drilling rigs and mining equipment.

Drilling Rig

An older drilling rig

That night we come back to take in the 30 minute light and sound presentation which recreates the story of local oil and gas exploration in the early part of last century.

Roma also lies in the heart of a rich cattle grazing area. The largest cattle-selling centre in Australia lies here and visitors can experience the sales on a free guided tour. Thursday is a busy day in town with Prime (fattened) cattle being sold. Up to 12,000 cattle per sale can be yarded. Cattle are transported by truck in the days leading up to the sale and are fed and watered in spelling yards until the afternoon before the sale, when they are then drafted into the selling pens. We are up early on the day of the sale and head to the yards. There are quite a lot of people waiting to take the tour and we are split into smaller groups with each one having its own tour guide. Our guide takes us on a walk between the selling pens where we rub shoulders with the cattle buyers and agents. The smell is slightly overpowering at first but after a while you don't seem to notice it as much. We are then guided up to the walkways which overlook the pens and we can watch as the selling agents auction each pen.

Roma Saleyards - Auction underway

Not all the cattle in each pen is acceptable to the buyers and a long handled broom daubed with paint is used to mark those that don't pass muster.

Cattle in pen being marked with brush

After each pen is sold the cattle are herded into the weigh-in area where the total kilograms per sale can be recorded and then moved on for delivery or into spelling yards.

Weigh-in area

By the following day all the cattle have been loaded onto trucks and taken to their destinations. One would like to think that they were all going to nice rich pastures somewhere but the reality is that most of these cattle are sold for meat production.

We've quite enjoyed our stay at Roma. One of those places we have been through many times but not actually stopped in to have a look around. We spend our last night at the clay target shooting grounds watching the sunset. With kangaroos grazing in the nearby paddock it makes for a pleasant end to the day.