Friday 17th:
Awoke to a nice sunny day but man is
that wind cold too cold to sit outside and or do anything
outside,Chris had marked a couple of things to see and or do indoors.
We ventured off around 1030am to the Big Rig centre.
The year was 1900 and a drilling crew
were searching for water on Roma's Hospital Hill. It was hoped that
the crew would find a water source suitable to supply the town with
water fresh from the Great Artesian Basin. Suddenly the unexpected
happened, "strewth, it's gas!!" explained a very surprised
driller as gas, mud and water came gushing from the well. With this
event, quiet by accident, Australia's oil and gas industry was born. The land that the Big Rig Centre
is on belongs to the local tribe - The Mandandanji people are
the local custodians of the region surrounding Roma. The Big Rig
celebrates the unique history of Australia's oil and gas industry,
the Big Rig take you on an amazing journey of Australia's first
discovery of petroleum, to the boom and bust years of oil and gas
exploration and onto today's multi - billion dollar industry. It is a
great experience about the fascinating story of oil and gas, born
from the ancient earth, fire and water, a great chance to see how it
has changed the way we live. We spent a couple of hours here upon
leaving the Big Rig we walked across the car park to the old
Historic Lenroy Slab Hut. Built in 1893 the well constructed
and preserved slab hut was all completely hand built from local
timber to house a family of 11. The basic structure is as it was
built more than 100 years ago ( the only thing that has been replaced
is the verandah). On the way back to the van we made our way to the
Cultural Centre to see the Three Dimensional Mural
The amazing mural contains 17 elements
and is interpreted by means of an audio and moving light show, the
mural was amazing however the lights were not working and the audio
was not loud enough to hear. The mural gives an overview of the
history, industry and culture of Roma and its district. We came back
to the van where we had a cuppa and sandwich it is way to chilly to
sit outside. Tomorrow we will go back to the Big Rig and do the train
ride on the "Roma Express" all for the cost of $2ea
- last of the big spenders.
