With a population of about 7000 people, the town of Roma has a couple of claims to fame. Firstly, it is the location where the first oil and gas industry originated in Australia. Secondly, it hosts the largest cattle selling centre in Australia.

The Big Rig in Roma, is the major tourist attraction in town. Learn the story of how oil and gas first flowed into the nation. There is good historical information as well as old machinery, rigs and equipment to look at.

We were extremely disappointed to be unable to time our trip to Roma to catch the weekly live cattle auctions at the saleyards on Tuesday mornings. This would have been an awesome sight as this place sells a massive number of cattle from New South Wales, Northern Territory and Queensland. There are tours of the saleyards and you can watch the live auction on Tuesday mornings. If you miss out on the live auction, there is an excellent interpretive centre which is free entry for the public. This is a modern facility and very well done. You can also wander around the empty saleyards and just marvel at the scale of this operation.