Hutt River Province, 1970–2020

August 2, 2020 9:58 PM

After 50 years of secession, the Principality of Hutt River will rejoin Australia.

Founded by HRH Prince Leonard [Casley] in 1970, who died in 2019 aged 93, the second-largest nation on the continent, a constitutional democratic hereditary absolute monarchy, has in its existence, faced persecution by the Australian Tax Office, been recognised by Buckingham Palace, declared war (and, undefeated, declared peace) with Australia, printed its own stamps, passports, drivers licences, and Tax File Numbers, and been officially recognised by the State of Western Australia for its cultural heritage significance.

posted by Fiasco da Gama (26 comments total)

faced persecution by the Australian Tax Office

Asking them to pay their legally due taxes is persecution? You can't be serious.
posted by Umami Dearest at 10:18 PM on August 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

Indeed, I suspect OP isn't.
posted by Panthalassa at 10:24 PM on August 2, 2020 [8 favorites]

OMG. End of an era.
posted by b33j at 10:32 PM on August 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

If Scummo keeps on the way he's going, all of Western Australia will secede next.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 10:54 PM on August 2, 2020 [7 favorites]

The tourist attraction had [...] a treaty with Indigenous land owners.

Glad the article included this, as that was my first thought.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 11:16 PM on August 2, 2020 [5 favorites]

OG sovcits, respect
posted by mikelynch at 11:17 PM on August 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

When I first saw this, I thought it might connect with "Central Western Standard Time", a small area in the southeast corner of WA that observes a UTC+08:45 time, unofficially. Sadly, unrelated. Worth a google, if such things amuse you. I stumbled across it not long ago when dealing with time zones. The other related discovery is that all of Nepal operates on a UTC offset that isn't a multiple of 30 minutes as well, and that's quite official.
posted by bcd at 12:57 AM on August 3, 2020 [4 favorites]

.
posted by acb at 1:12 AM on August 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

When I set up my idiosyncratic sovereign kingdom, I will make sure to set the time zone to local solar time, down to the millisecond. None of this 15-minute intervals nonsense.
posted by acb at 1:13 AM on August 3, 2020 [9 favorites]

This seems bad timing. The coronavirus lockdown meant that the Hutt River Province was one of the few ways left for Australians to travel abroad. Now, no more. The walls of our confinement draw ever closer.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:55 AM on August 3, 2020 [27 favorites]

When I set up my idiosyncratic sovereign kingdom, I will make sure to set the time zone to local solar time, down to the millisecond

So your idiosyncratic sovereign kingdom is going to measure ~100m from its easternmost point to its westernmost (maybe a tad wider if it's an idiosyncratic sovereign tropical kingdom)?
posted by flabdablet at 5:46 AM on August 3, 2020 [5 favorites]

As a child of the Hutt Valley in New Zealand (which has its own Hutt River), I momentarily panicked...
posted by inflatablekiwi at 6:09 AM on August 3, 2020 [8 favorites]

So your idiosyncratic sovereign kingdom is going to measure ~100m from its easternmost point to its westernmost

That sounds fairly reasonable as far as micronations go.
posted by acb at 6:26 AM on August 3, 2020 [7 favorites]

((Tinka me chasa ateey isti ma booty na nolia. Peecha wanchee lockhba tang nannee du jabar tua -- dobra beecha ugabungu cheeskar goo! Ho ho ho!))

"They think we can do nothing. We will not give up our land -- but we will take vengeance against cheater scum! [deep laughter]"
posted by likethemagician at 8:22 AM on August 3, 2020 [3 favorites]

I'll never forget those haunting images of the last heli-evac lifting off from the roof of the American Consulate / cow barn.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 9:13 AM on August 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

I will make sure to set the time zone to local solar time

Riyadh Solar Time is my go-to example of "timezones are harder to implement than you think".
posted by ook at 9:15 AM on August 3, 2020

Well, that's what happens when you set sunrise as a fixed point; if you do that, your suffering is entirely self-inflicted and you should probably reconsider your life choices.

Setting it like a normal person so that midnight lines up with 00:00 and noon with 12:00 should be a lot more manageable.
posted by acb at 9:26 AM on August 3, 2020

"Constitutional democratic hereditary absolute monarchy" has a lot of dissonance going on in just five words.
posted by sonascope at 9:33 AM on August 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

The Republic of Molossia's time zone is -8 hours +39 minutes GMT (bit of a derail but we are talking about micronations, which are nothing if not territorial derails)
posted by queensissy at 10:07 AM on August 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

Back when I used to work at the local ISP, Westnet, the Hutt River Province was one of our customers. We also hosted their website.

I got to speak to Prince Graeme. Nice bloke.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 2:14 PM on August 3, 2020 [7 favorites]

This seems bad timing. The coronavirus lockdown meant that the Hutt River Province was one of the few ways left for Australians to travel abroad. Now, no more. The walls of our confinement draw ever closer.

I can tell you now that McGowan was never going to let you dirty Victorians into the state to get to HRP.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 2:17 PM on August 3, 2020

"Constitutional democratic hereditary absolute monarchy" has a lot of dissonance going on in just five words.

It runs in the family. J.B. Priestly describing the Mother Country in the New Statesman, July 1949: "We are a Socialist Monarchy that is really the last monument of Liberalism."
posted by AdamCSnider at 2:21 PM on August 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

So totally claiming ignorance on the secession...wow.
but at least y'all never had to go to war for Toledo. (Ohio)
posted by clavdivs at 3:01 PM on August 3, 2020

Of the roughly 100 self-declared independent entities around the world, about a third of these can be found in Australia.

posted by RobotHero at 8:23 PM on August 3, 2020

I heard them talking about this on the radio last night, and apparently when they were forced to pay taxes, it was entered into the budget as "foreign aid". Which amused me no end.
posted by kjs4 at 10:14 PM on August 3, 2020 [9 favorites]

Constitutional democratic hereditary absolute monarchy" has a lot of dissonance going on in just five words.

Yeah, but if Carbon 7 can ever record again, we’re going to need song titles.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:49 PM on August 4, 2020