Roma Regional Council was formed in 2008 by the amalgamation of Roma Town and Bendemere, Booringa, Bungil and Warroo Shires. It is bisected west-east by the Warrego Highway/Western Railway corridor and has an area of 58,830 sq km.

The constituent rural shires were as follows:

Shire Area
(km2)		 Admin
Centre		 Population
(2006)		 Median Age
(2006)		 % in Farm
Employment
Booringa
(westerly shire)		 27,828 Mitchell 1706 40 35.4
Warroo
(southerly shire)		 13,658 Surat 1038 38 49.3
Bungil
(surrounded Roma)		 13,338 Roma 2051 38 38.3
Bendemere
(easterly shire)		 3928 Yuleba 985 41 45.0

All the administrative centres except Surat are on the Warrego Highway. Roma, with a population of 6504 (2006), had 53% of the population of Roma Regional Council, which had 12,284 (2006).

The Regional Council's area has a high proportion of residents of Anglo-Celtic background, with a declared adherence to the Anglican faith and a disinclination to state 'no religion' in the 2006 census:

Shire Anglican
faith		 No
religion
Bendemere 31.0% 8.0%
Booringa 35.0% 11.0%
Bungil 39.0% 11.0%
Warroo 34.0% 9.0%
Roma 30.0% 12.0%
National 18.7% 18.7%

The main rural industries are beef cattle, sheep for wool, and cereals. Roma has one of Australia's largest beef-cattle saleyards. The land north and east of Roma was originally brigalow country or eucalypt woodland on solodic soils. Brigalow country generally has a high natural fertility and solodic soils, whilst deficient in nitrogen and phosphorus, can be top-dressed for pasture growth. Some have above-average water retention. Overall farm production is good.

As well as having a large livestock sales outlet, Roma is the region's wholesale and retail distribution centre. Nearly a quarter of Roma's employed population were in wholesale and retail (2006).

In 2009 the Roma Regional Council was renamed the Maranoa Regional Council.

Further Reading: 

Roma, Bendemere, Booringa, Bungil and Warroo Shire entries