Australian Standing Stones - Glen Innes, NSW
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Tuena
S 29° 44.491 E 151° 45.166
56J E 379391 N 6709204
The Australian Standing Stones is the official national monument to honour all Celtic peoples who helped pioneer Australia.
Waymark Code: WMV50G
Location: New South Wales, Australia
Date Posted: 02/24/2017
Views: 8
Many Europeans who settled in Glen Innes from 1838 were of Celtic origin. Those from Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Mann developed grazing, dairying and mixed farming enterprises, while those from Wales & Cornwall were often gold & tin miners.
The Australian Standing Stones began as an ambitious project by a small, dedicated group of citizens who wanted to mark Glen Innes’ Celtic heritage.
It was in Australia’s 1988 Bicentenary Year that the Celtic Council of Australia developed the idea of erecting a national monument to honour all Celtic peoples who helped pioneer Australia. Glen Innes responded with a 46-page submission for Australian Standing Stones.
In announcements from Scotland by David Donnelly, then Glen Innes’ Mayor, and from Sydney by Peter Alexander, then convener of the Celtic Council of Australia, it was official: Glen Innes was chosen. But no money came with the right to build the Stones.
John Tregurtha, a pharmacist, chairman of the committee delegated to build the array, and Lex Ritchie, then the town’s tourist officer and an expert bushman, spent three months scouring the bush within 50km of Glen Innes for the stones. They had to stand 3.7 metres from ground level, which meant each to be 5.5 metres in total length.
They found only three stones which could be used in their natural state – others had to be split from larger rock bodies. A former Snowy Mountains Scheme worker and local alderman George Rozynski, who at 17 migrated with his family from Poland, came up with the solution. He remembered his rock drilling work on the Snowy and heard of a new expanding compound which could split rocks without using explosives.
It took more than six months of further effort, spearheaded by Bob Dwyer, who went on to become Glen Innes’ Mayor, and businessman Ted Nowlan, using a 12 tonne forklift and other heavy equipment to load and transport the stones on a timber loader to the Centennial Parklands site. The weight of the stones averaged 17 tonnes.
Sponsors were invited to pay $1000 each to help defray the cost of the Stones. Clans, families and others from across Australia and the world responded and within a fortnight all were snapped up.
The three central Stones were excluded from sponsorship: the Australis Stone for all Australians, the Gaelic Stone for Gaelic speaking Celts from Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, and the Brythonic Stone for the Brythonic-speaking Celts of Wales, Cornwall and Brittany.
The thirty eight stones include a circle of 24 representing the 24 hours in a day. The three central stones mark the centre of the circle. Seven stones mark where the rising & setting of the Sun shows the high point of Summer (the summer solstice) & deepest Winter (the winter solstice), important times for farmers. Four extra stones mark the cardinal points of the compass.
Source: Glen Innes Tourism
Who placed it?: Glen Innes Shire Council
When was it placed?: 2/1/1992
Who is honored?: All Celtic peoples who helped pioneer Australia.
Website about the Monument: [Web Link]
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