Hutt River Province
Meet Prince Leonard I, (his likeness shown in the squinty-eyed sculpture to the left) the unquestioned ruler of the Hutt River Province.
Due to some sort of wheat quota dispute among farmers, the glorious Prince Leonard (and his loyal followers) seceded from Australia and formed their own country in 1970. While the population may not be impressive, as Prince Leonard reminded us: it is the second largest country on the continent.
The Prince stamped our passports, gave us a one day entry visa, and gave us a personal tour of the various government buildings of this bustling megatropolis.
During the tour he showed us a gold gift his country was given by some Japanese leader, various newspaper articles, Hutt River's official paper money, official Hutt River stamps, pictures of the 8-person military, and a variety of other newspaper articles and official documents regarding the province (including one from the Australian parliament that seemed to state Hutt River's legal right to secede.) The Prince assured us this document was not supposed to be in his hands, but he had acquired it anyway (he is a very powerful man, my friends.)
From Wikipedia: Text from internal documents of the Australian Department of Territories, posted to the internet by the Hutt River principality, certainly seem to indicate that the government regarded the secession to be legal, and even commented that the entity was additionally not able to be taxed.
After saying goodbye to Hutt River we returned to Australia and continued the trek north. My only regret is that I didn't get a picture with the Prince himself. We went to look for him after he gave us the tour, but he had vanished. He must be a very busy man though.
Further information on this beautiful country:
http://www.hutt-river-province.com/
Due to some sort of wheat quota dispute among farmers, the glorious Prince Leonard (and his loyal followers) seceded from Australia and formed their own country in 1970. While the population may not be impressive, as Prince Leonard reminded us: it is the second largest country on the continent.
The Prince stamped our passports, gave us a one day entry visa, and gave us a personal tour of the various government buildings of this bustling megatropolis.
During the tour he showed us a gold gift his country was given by some Japanese leader, various newspaper articles, Hutt River's official paper money, official Hutt River stamps, pictures of the 8-person military, and a variety of other newspaper articles and official documents regarding the province (including one from the Australian parliament that seemed to state Hutt River's legal right to secede.) The Prince assured us this document was not supposed to be in his hands, but he had acquired it anyway (he is a very powerful man, my friends.)
From Wikipedia: Text from internal documents of the Australian Department of Territories, posted to the internet by the Hutt River principality, certainly seem to indicate that the government regarded the secession to be legal, and even commented that the entity was additionally not able to be taxed.
After saying goodbye to Hutt River we returned to Australia and continued the trek north. My only regret is that I didn't get a picture with the Prince himself. We went to look for him after he gave us the tour, but he had vanished. He must be a very busy man though.
Further information on this beautiful country:
http://www.hutt-river-province.com/
posted by Soggy Butterflies @ 12:31 AM
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