Australian Building His Own Stonehenge

PERTH, Australia (AP) - Pagans and druids, mark your calendars and book your
airplane tickets. An Australian entrepreneur hopes to open a Stonehenge
replica by the Dec. 21 solstice, just in time for New Age revelers.
"I'm doing it because I can," said Ross Smith, the former owner of a
successful microbrewery business who plans to build the monument on his
property in Western Australia. "Nowhere in the world has a complete
Stonehenge been built."
The $1.26 million project, to be called The Henge, will include 101 granite
stones arranged in an inner and outer circle, a central altar, and will span
110 feet.
"I've studied plans of the original and that's what The Henge will look
like," Smith said.
Unlike the original Stonehenge, guests will be encouraged to touch and play
around the new monument, which will also have an interpretive center and a
children's playground.
Smith called The Henge "a business venture." An entry fee will be charged
and it will be hired out for weddings and other events.
He hopes his replica will attract 200,000 to 300,000 tourists per year to
the Margaret River region, already renowned for fine wine, chocolate and
cheese.
A small team of quarry workers in Western Australia has spent the past five
months drilling and blasting the stones into shape, and Smith expects the
attraction will be open by Dec. 21, the summer solstice in the southern
hemisphere.
England's Stonehenge was created between 3,000 B.C. and 1,600 B.C. Today it
is a major tourist attraction and has spiritual significance for neo-druids
and New Age followers, thousands of whom gather there on June 21 each year
to celebrate the northern hemisphere's summer solstice.

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