Day 232 / 2014 - Mitchell to Roma

Mitchell was one of the best free campspots we have stayed at so far. Its close proximity to a town a supply of drinking water at the campsite and toilet facilities made it a comfortable extended stop The only thing missing would be an onsite dump point.

We thought about staying a bit longer but were concerned that wet weather was coming and being black soil it would turn to clay making it difficuilt to get out. 

Leaving Mitchell we turned east once again and headed for our next stop Roma. Planning for Roma were wern't to sure if we wanted to stay or not as none of the reviews for the parks or campground were to good. We thought about driving into town doing what we need then driving out to a nearby rest area. Arriving in town we decided we would stop as the Big Rig tourist park looked okay from where we stood and we wanted to see the night show at the Big Rig Tourist Attraction across from the caravan park so booked in for 2 nights. The caravan park although small is very popular and books out regularly the managers are friendly enough.

First day we mainly looked through the town, restocked the larder and general clean and catchup of chores. Roma has all the facilities including a Woolworths, Mitre 10, McDonalds, KFC and lots of pubs. It also has a number of government services such as a drivers licensing and vehicle registration centre.  The next day we went over to the Big Rig tourist attaction for a look. There are 2 parts, The Oil Patch and Night Show. The Oil Patch was a walk through a number of static and interactive displays describing the history of the Oil and Gas industry in the Roma area. There are a sample of the drill rigs which were used over the history used in the discovery and extraction of oil and gas.

There is also a theatre which regularly displays a series of short movies although I thought it was more of a Santos publicity movie than anything about the history of the area. The night show was basically a movie of all the information displayed at the Oil Patch display with a bit of characterised voices narrating the the historical text. There are a couple of additional touches such as a gas fire example and tents depicting life on the oil feilds. If I had to choose only one I would go for the night show but there is no reason why you can't do both if you have the time.