HE may have officially retired from politics several years ago, but a former NSW tourism minister said Glen Innes’ Australian Standing Stones would remain a testament to community supporting a big idea.

Michael Yabsley, who as Minister for Tourism attended the opening of the monument by NSW Governor Admiral Peter Sinclair on February 1, 1992, stopped by the stones on Sunday during a regional NSW touring holiday with daughter Alexandra, 14.

“Full credit must go to those communities that support a visionary project; you have to have the courage of conviction, and the Glen Innes community certainly did that,” he said.

He was interested to hear that the stones had helped provide a focus for the Australian Celtic Festival, which now brought thousands of visitors to Glen Innes each year.

“That is the divident for putting in the hard yards in the first place,” he said.

“There are so many towns that talk about what they might do, but it takes a ‘can do’ community to make it happen.”

Mr Yabsley also visited Glen Innes on a number of occasions in the late 1980’s as minister for corrective services, a portfolio that was responsible for the Glen Innes Correctional Centre.