Monday...3 September 2012

So travelling down the road today it occurred to me that our travels often have recurring themes. Like seeing someone riding a push bike in the middle of nowhere nearly every day to the point where now we only comment when we don't see one. It is because of the miles we are travelling that we constantly come across road works both major and minor. We have it figured now that if we see a string of traffic coming towards us it generally means that there are roadworks up ahead somewhere.
Roadkill is another daily vision, today it was lots of small wallabies and quite a few large kangaroos, we have also seen dead foxes, pigs, cats, cows and of course snakes and birds.
As we have moved around Australia we have seen so many animals in paddocks or on the road or beside the road. Cows, sheep, donkeys, alpacas, horses, camels, buffalo, pigs, goats, dogs.
We have also seen lots of our native wildlife, Dingos, emus, echnidas, snakes, kangaroos to name a few. When we park up each day we take time to notice what birds are in the area. Lately it has been apostle birds and lorrikeets.
The natural vegetation is always interesting. Today we started seeing bottle trees. They look very similar to the boab trees in the west. We have found out that the bottle trees are native to Queensland.

Today we travelled from Rollston to Roma.
When I was at school I was taught that Roma is the major centre for the beef cattle industry in central Queensland. Well it does still have massive sale yards and tomorrow is sale day, but these days it is better known as the major centre for a huge oil and gas industry.
We spent the afternoon learning about this natural resource and the way it has helped to change the district.Very interesting.

Footnote: Have just learnt that someone we know has their picture up on the wall of fame inside the display centre. He operated this rig back in the very early days of the industry! Small world.