Ever since the landing of the First Fleet a high proportion of arrivals to Australia have been of Celtic descent. In the early days these folks were mainly Irish and Scottish but over time large numbers came from all the Celtic lands. Their contribution to Australia has been enormous. The Glen Innes district was settled in 1838 by Scottish pastoralits. Other nationalities soon followed and, when tin was discovered in Emmaville and elsewhere, many Cornish mineres came to the area. Glen Innes today has a high percentage of residents who are descended from those early Celtic settlers, particularly the Scotts, the Irish and the Cornish. It was largely in recognition of this genuine Celtic that Glen Innes - now awarded the title of Honoured Celtic City by the Celtic Council of Australia - was chosen as the site of Australia's national Celtic monument, the Australian Standing Stones.
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The Australian Standing Stones are unique, the first solar aligned megalithic stone circle erected anywhere in the world in more than 3,000 years. Like the stone circles of antiquity, they are a working calendar. They accurately mark the solstices, the longest and shortest day of each year. These times are marked by rays of sunlight and shadows falling on particular stones in a way that does not happen on any other day of the year. When viewed from above the arrangement of the Australian Standing Stones also incorporates a Celtic Cross and the Southern Cross. The former indicates that the monument was erected in Christian times, the latter symbolises the heritage link between the old Celtic civilisation and the new.
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The Celts were the first identified civilisation of Europe. The earliest traces of them date from about 800 BC, but the archeological record shows that by then they were already a very advanced society. At the height of their dominance around 500 BC Celtic culture stretched almost unbroken from Ireland in the west right across Europe and as far as Galatia in modern day Turkey. By about 100 AD Celtic society had virtually disappeared from mainland Europe, and survived in recognisable form only in Ireland and Scotland, the Isle of Man, Coenwall and Wales, and to some extend in Brittany and north-western Spain. But later, when the Roman legions left Britain, many Celts from Cornwall and Wales followed them across the Channel and recolonised Brittany.
The Australian Celtic Festival is held at the Australian Standing Stones over the first weekend of May each year. Glenn Innes is situated in Northern New South Wales about 100 kilometres South from the Queensland border and 150 kilometres inland.