Big rigs in Roma

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It was a short drive from our free camp to Hebel where we needed to refuel. While filling the 4WD we could hear loud Mooing sounds and crashing noises. Looking over we saw a cattle truck road train with very excited cattle, mooing and kicking at the sides of the truck. Initially we were puzzled but then we came to the conclusion they had only recently been loaded and had not yet settled down. Joan was also puzzled as to why the ladies toilets were locked but not the mens.



Leaving the town we saw a popular area to free camp next to the local river. That needs to get added to “Camps Australia Wide”, so we made our own addition for any future trip to this area.



This morning we saw a variety of wildlife. First there was an echidna crossing the road – in the other lane thank goodness. There were cattle grazing on the verge and frill neck lizards sunning themselves on the road. Finally we had a race with a rather foolish emu that seemed to want to cross in front of us! We were relieved when it eventually gave up and turned away as we have had a previous experience with an emu and did not want to repeat it.



After spotting an interesting Lion’s Park in Serat we decided to stop for lunch, even though it was a little early. Extensive lawned areas on the banks of their local river, shady trees and nice amenities made this a popular place for parents to bring groups of children.



On the way out of town was a very impressive and well organised free camping area – Fisherman’s Paradise. This area seems to be very popular for inland fishing trips – there would have been at least twenty groups camped, but they were widely spread out. For a charity gold coin donation this looks to be a great spot. Another manual addition was made to our caravaner’s bible.

Roma is a much bigger regional centre. Perhaps it should be called Santos town as Santos has a huge presence due to their coal seam gas activity in the region. When we booked into the big rig caravan park we initially thought the name applied to large caravans, commonly called big rigs. We were wrong as the name actually referred to the two actual oil rigs located in the nearby information centre. Turns out Roma has a long history of oil, gas and now coal seam gas activity. We ended up spending most of the afternoon in the centre’s exhibition area. This was impressive but then we realised it was largely a PR exercise by Santos to win over attitudes toward coal seam gas extraction. Irrespective of that, we learnt heaps about oil and gas exploration, both historic and modern.

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Photos

Origin has a small power plant in Roma to utilise the CSG (coal seam gas)
Larry this one is for you.