Days Four and Five Roma

Pulled into the Big Rig Tourist Park next to the Big Rig Tourist interactive display on the oil and gas history of the Roma district (which was well worth seeing) to find most of the caravan spaces converted into demountable tin cities to house the legions of miners and support industries that boom through so much of western Queensland.

Nice enough spot near the Bungil River Park, but a little crowded compared to the awesome park at St George we had just spent two days at. Town was interesting though, and much bigger than we realized from last trip over a year ago when we stayed on the Highway a block over on the town edge and didn't realize the immensity of the town centre.

Needed the extra day to get the Timing Belt repaired on the 70-series Landcruiser so I dropped it off on the Thursday using the bike carrier and cycled back the 2.3 kms to the park from the huge industrial area on the SW edge of town. The Tourist Park is on the Eastern edge. We did the Bungil River walk, which was terrific, saw the old China Town, Avenue of Heroes and 3D Sculpture in the Cultural Centre. Then carried poor old Louise back through the centre of town, buying a clothes rack on the way.

Car retrieved first rain of the trip was the harbinger of the awful disaster that Ex TC Oswald was about to wreak on Central and Southern Queensland. Heavy rains were forecast for Saturday so we packed up and drove only 87kms west to Mitchell.