THE AUSTRALIAN STANDING STONES

In the small country town of Glenn Innes in the highlands of northern NSW there is a collection of standing stones. Unlike the mysterious ancient ones found in England and elsewhere, we know when these were erected, who put them there, why they were put there and what they mean.

The Standing Stones began as an idea of a small group of people who wanted to mark Glen Innes' Celtic heritage, where the first settlers mainly Scots arrived in 1838. In our bi-centenial year 1988, the Celtic Council of Australia developed the idea of erecting a national monument to honour all Celtic peoples who helped pioneer Australia. The Standing Stones was inspired by the Ring of Brodgar in Scotland.

John Tregurtha, a pharmacist delegated to build the array. Lex Ritchie, a tourist officer and expert bushman spent three months scouring the bush for suitable stones. Each stone had to be 5.5 metres in length and they weighed approx 17 tonnes. Only three stones could be found in their natural state the others had to be split from larger rocks. Local alderman, George Rozynski, who worked on the Snowy Mountain Hydro Scheme used his knowledge of splitting rocks without using explosives. He and another alderman, Bill Tyson spent many months drilling rocks and inserting a special compound, which split the rocks over night. It took another six months for Bob Dwyer and businessman Ted Nowlan using a 12 ton fork lift and heavy moving equipment to transport the rocks to Centenary Park.

The Standing Stones are comprised of 40 monoliths. there is a circle of 24 representing 24 hours of the day. There are 3 central stones, 4 cardinal stones marking North, South East and West and seven stones marking the Summer and Winter solstices. They are probably the first of their kind built anywhere in the world for 3500 years.
From above  the five stars of the Southern Cross are formed by the 4 cardinal stones and stone number 17 inside the circle on the path of the summer solstice dawn. The 4 cardinal stones and the circle also form the Celtic Cross the symbol of the early Christian Church.

The three central stones. One is The Australia Stone, one is The Gaelic Stone and one is The Brythonic Stone

Looking down the avenue of 6 stones, which are aligned with the suns beams, marks the dawn of the winter solstice.

There is also an Excalibur that is stuck in the rock where visitors can try their luck at removing it.

There are many more special stones, The Gaelic Stone, The Cornish Stone, The Gorsedd Stone and the heaviest stone at 38 tonnes is The Irish Stone.

The stones have been sponsored by families, businesses and councils to help pay for the cost of construction. The Stones  are the home of the annual Australian Celtic Festival, where clans, groups and artists come from all over the country and the world to take part in a huge variety of celtic activities. I would love to see that but the accommodation is booked out a year ahead. It was nice being with very few visitors at sunset.