Did you know that there is a country within Australia? It's called the Hutt River Province, and it has a Prince, who is also a farmer.
Declaration of war.
Fine strategist, this patient and peaceful Prince, decided that he had enough of the pressures and harassments from the Administration and abruptly declared war to Australia.
The geographic situation of the Principality of Hutt River Province, distant of less than 70 km from Geralton's military base, was making the challenge hazardous.
A simple police action would have been enough to put an end to the extraordinary adventure of the CASLEY Family, and to some other families wich followed him.
Nevertheless, on December 2, 1977, the Principality declared very officially war to the powerful Australia. The Australian Authorities ignored magnificently what they took for a bragging.
On the other hand, the Press, more attentive and maybe more amused, once again marked its sympathy for the small Principality.
Some days later, Prince Leonard notified the Governor General of Australia on the cessation of "hostilities".
The Principality overcame the conflict with Australia, what was quite interesting on the legal point of view.
Indeed, international law stipulates that sovereignty is automatically acquired for a country which gets out of a conflict unhurt.
Source: History of Hutt River Province
There's no new news since December, 2005. Hopefully they made it through 2006 unscathed.
The territory is approximately the same size as Hong Kong, but with 13,000 people (worldwide) instead of 7 million.
After succession in 1970, a drama unfolded when Prince Regent took over most commercial operations. Throughout the 80's and early 90's, stamps, coins, and knighthoods were issued by the Prince. There was even an attempt to overthrow Prince Leonard and found a new kingdom on a Pacific Island. (tax haven, anyone?)
See the Wiki article for more info. Anyone know how to get citizenship for this country?
The Australian government generally appears to avoid any legal challenge to the HRP. While HRP builds its own buildings (without any Australian government approval), offers company registrations, car licences, sells coinage, philately and even runs its own University, many of these activities would seemingly draw the ire of the Australian government on any Australian citizen. However the Australian government has so far not interfered with HRP sovereignty in these matters, and appears to avoid any legal stoush with the HRP
I wonder what emissions standards they have there?
Here's a link to some coins and stamps available from Hutt River.
