Editing Roma, Queensland (section)

=== British exploration ===
The first documented British explorers to enter the region were Sir [[Thomas Mitchell (explorer)|Thomas Mitchell]] and [[Edmund Kennedy]] on their 1846 expedition. Mitchell named a nearby hill [[Mount Abundance, Queensland|Mount Abundance]] due to the rich plains he encountered around what is now Roma. He called these plains the Fitzroy Downs in honour of the newly appointed [[Governor of New South Wales]], [[Charles Augustus FitzRoy]].<ref name="mitchell">{{cite book |last1=Mitchell |first1=Thomas |title=Journal of an expedition into the interior of tropical Australia |date=1848 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/9943/9943-h/9943-h.htm |access-date=3 September 2023 |archive-date=8 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231208153201/https://www.gutenberg.org/files/9943/9943-h/9943-h.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> 

Mitchell and Kennedy encountered a community of around 200 Aboriginal people in this vicinity. After initial friendly communication, hostilities arose with Kennedy's men dispersing a group of Mandandanji after they tried to burn down the explorer's encampment.<ref name="mitchell" />