Roma builds a courthouse

Roma had been the hub of the Western Downs and Maranoa districts for more than 50 years. It had also earned itself a reputation as a place where verdicts based on evidence, rather than on popular opinion, were hard to come by, chiefly due to the outcome of the Harry Redford case in 1873. As a result of the case, Mr Justice Lutwyche and the Attorney-General agreed to strike Roma off the Circuit Court list for two years.

Times change and even the wildest places can, and do, eventually quieten down. Previously, Roma’s courthouse was an add-on to the police station, not an unusual juxtaposition even in today’s world. The citizens of Roma began petitioning the department to provide them with a courthouse more in keeping with the status of Roma as the centre of the ’Golden West’.

In 1897, plans were presented for a modest, functional and practical building with a residence attached. The plans were immediately met with howls of derision from the citizenry. The prevailing opinion was that it was nowhere near good enough for Roma. Petition followed petition and the local member, Robert King, a Labor man, added his voice to the pleas of his constituents.

In a case of ’comes the time, comes the man’, the 1899 election resulted in Sir Arthur Rutledge, a former Attorney-General in the Liberal/Ministerialist governments of Sir Samuel Griffith and Sir Thomas McIlwraith, winning the seat of Maranoa. Rutledge had previously represented such geographically diverse seats as Enoggera (Brisbane suburban), Kennedy (a huge area from Cardwell to Mackay taking in the entire Burdekin River system) and Charters Towers (another massive rural seat in the central north that originally, under the 1859 electoral distribution, had been a two-member seat, of which Rutledge was one).

When the Philp Government was sworn in on 7 December 7 1899, Rutledge was Attorney-General. The petitioners found a receptive ear in the new Attorney and in early 1900, Roma’s courthouse plans were redrawn and accepted with acclaim by the electorate.

The building, which has been refurbished by the department, is now heritage listed and provides a stunning example of Federation colonial architecture at its best.