Hunter's Emporium, Heritage-listed department store in Roma, Queensland, Australia.
Hunter's Emporium is a two-storey brick building at the corner of McDowall and Arthur streets in Roma, its street facades worked in bands of salt-glazed bricks with a plastered cornice and ball finials above the first-floor windows. A single-storey brick show-room and offices at the rear were lit by a large roof lantern.
John McEwan Hunter, a Scottish immigrant who managed a Roma store from 1889, rebuilt his emporium in 1916 after an April fire destroyed the original store and the Queen's Arms Hotel. Local contractor John Hill designed and built the two-storey brick building, completed in December 1916, and the firm became Hunter's Ltd by 1930. It joined the Queensland Heritage Register on 30 October 2008.
The building shows how retail in western Queensland developed over time and served as an important place where people shopped for fabrics and household goods.
The building sits at a main intersection with large windows that provided natural light for the sales floors. Its corner location makes it easy to spot and explore while walking around town.
The original timber columns and decorative ceilings remain inside, showing rare examples of early 1900s department store architecture. These details are uncommon in Australia and make the building an important record of how stores were designed in that era.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 93,792 contributors worldwide.