NOW entering its 41st year, Roma’s Easter in the Country festival is a five-day celebration of all things rural and a showcase of Queensland’s Maranoa district lifestyle.
The festival, from March 29- April 2, offers activities for the thrill-seeker, the culture buff and those who like to take things a little more leisurely.
Activities will include Moonlighting in Moffatt, an art exhibition from Karen Knight-Mudie, based on the story of the bushranging Kenniff brothers.
Maranoa Performance Poetry and Song features special guests bush balladeer and Golden Guitar winner Jeff Brown, bush poet Gary Fogarty, traditional country and ballads performer Alisha Smith, bush balladeer and Golden Guitar winner Keith Jamieson, and rising star Caitlyn Jamieson.
The audience will be part of the judging panel, with prize money for each category.
Children will love will the Monster Egg Hunt as well as Extreme Bulls, an alcohol-free family night starring bucking bulls and their daring riders.
For motor action there’s mud driving and the Roma Speedway. For other fast movers, billy cart, wife-carrying and goat races are also part of the line-up.
The Big Rig Show, meanwhile, is an outdoor multi-media event telling the story of oil drilling in the area, especially during the boom years of the late 1920s. While there, visit The Big Rig complex – a memorial to those days and home of Roma's Visitor Information Centre (07 4622-2325).
Lovers of plants will enjoy Mooreland Bush Nursery and Jim and Robyn Wilby’s open garden.
If you go...
Roma Court House is where bushman Harry Redford was tried for stealing 1000 head of cattle and leading them on an epic drive to SA through the same sort of country that took the lives of Burke and Wills nine years earlier. Such was the respect for his daring that the jury acquitted him. The deed formed the basis of Rolf Boldrewood’s classic novel Robbery Under Arms.
The School of Arts Hotel, built in 1918, has an unusual tower that has excellent views over the town.
Wyndham Street has two fine rows of bottle trees planted after World War I. It is said there is one tree for each local soldier killed in the conflict.
Romavilla Winery is the oldest winery in Queensland, dating from 1863.
Meadowbank Museum, just west of town, has a wide-ranging collection of local artefacts. It’s a farmstay, too. Rugged and inspiring Carnarvon Gorge is only 90km north.
Roma is 470km north-west of Brisbane, about a six-hour drive along the Warrego Highway. Qantas flies to directly most days of the week.