Work on a new Stonehenge 'Down Under' is scheduled to start shortly. In a bid to attract tourists and increase revenue, the Rotary club of Esperance, Western Australia, is leading a plan to build a full-scale replica of the neolithic monument on a council-owned site overlooking a local beach.
     Kim Beale, a spokesman for the local Rotary Club, said "Obviously some people may wonder why you'd build Stonehenge at Esperance, but the stone is already here and I think it's a good opportunity. I reckon it's quite fascinating." The structure will consist of some 100 stones of up to 45 tons each.
     While some townspeople remain sceptical about the plan due to the failure of a previous Stonehenge proposal, the A$1.2 million project is backed by local tourist operators, and the giant pink granite stones are to be donated by a local quarry. Esperance's only other attraction is part of the US Skylab satellite, which crashed to earth nearby on a local farm in 1979.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk (19 April 2010)