Where does one start when it comes to describing this Australian anachronism? Is it really possible to take the Casley family (sorry, Prince Leonard et al) seriously? I mean, really.....a tiny, self declared 'principality', unrecognised by Australia or any other country in the world populated by a family about which the kindest description would have to be 'excentric'......I freely admit I was struggling with the whole concept before our visit the The Principality of the Hutt River Province.
And, to my utter amazement, after we had arrived at Hutt River, I discovered that they really do take themselves and their fiefdom seriously. Either that, or the two family members with whom we had dealings are, and obviously have been over many years, consummate actors. Or perhaps they have reached that psychological state where a certain questionable proposition, or downright fantasy, if repeated often enough, becomes an accepted reality.
Part of my personal dilemma lies in the fact that Graeme Casley, who runs the tourism side of Hutt River, was the most gracious and charming of hosts, free with his time, highly personable in his approach and expansive in his explanations of what we were being shown, overtly sincere, and, as a tourist operator, would be a role model for any in the industry. And with an 'admission fee', paid voluntarily for a 'passport', of only $2.00 per person, high levels of financial gain is clearly not a motivating factor in maintaining this extraordinary charade.
Of all the things which this family may be, have been, or will become, stupid is clearly not one of them as a quick look at the history of this odd place demonstrates. In his progress down the road to ultimate secession and his declaration of independence from Australia, Leonard Casley displayed a prodigious talent for legal research and a cunning which saw him outsmart the Australian Federal Government in a way which, despite myself, I had to admire for its blinding audacity if nothing else. I mean, he declared war on Australia at one point for God's sake! Talk about the 'mouse that roared'!
What I shall call Hutt River Province (HRP for convenience) is a 75 square kilometre farming property located in the north-western whealtbelt district some 600 kms north of Perth. Our 70 kms journey from Kalbarri took us off the blacktop and along quite a number of kilometres of good dirt road through the gently undulating farming country and scrub land of the district
before we pulled into the unpretentious driveway of the property. This was my first surprise for the morning....for some reason I had expected much more pomp. Mind you, that came later!
As we made our way along the entrance roadway, the first evidence of fact that this place is different hove into view.....a larger than life bust of 'his nibs', Prince Leonard (I still struggle using that nomenclature and shall henceforth refer to him by his surname or as LC) which stands in front of a small 'welcoming' pavilion
'guarded' by these two very cleverly constructed statues (each component of these had a former life - spoons, pieces of wrought iron fencing, chains etc, etc).
On the interior walls of this building are the first pieces of evidence of an unexpected theme which is pervasive throughout the various buildings of HRP.....certificates and documents espousing the purported scientific acumen of L C,
together with charts, tables and other evidence of a number of mathematical and other scientific theories for which he claims discovery or establishment credit. This is one aspect of HRP about which I had no prior inkling. As to the veracity of the claims made, I am in no position to argue a case one way or the other (all who know me will be aware of what a whizz I am at Maths!) and can only note that a brief search on the Internet did not indicate that L C is the subject of international scientific acclaim. To the mathematically unwashed, of which I a decidedly one, it all looks very impressive but I could not shake the feeling that this may have been to real science what astrology is to astronomy.
Beyond this edifice to himself we come to the chapel building, complete with the exterior gravestone which marks the passing of LC's wife, Shirley. Like the remainder of the HRP infrastructure, I found the construction material and style of this building to be disappointingly bland. This is Australia's premier micro-nation for heaven's sake....where's the panache?
There were a few surprises inside, including an extensive range of religious art works, and facing the congregational pews either side of the preaching rostrum,
two 'throne chairs' (his and hers) in which members of the public are cordially invited to pose for a photo. Liz felt the need. I humoured her, but did not score heavily in the brownie points department for suggesting that the look on her face was a silly grin and commenting that that was most apt for the occasion!
Next on the agenda was the Government Office and Post office building and what an eclectic range of 'stuff' these house.
Medals representing the various Orders of Merit of the HRP, all with impressively imposing titles,
and certificates to match
sit side by side with displays of international bank notes,
the art work depicting the range of the original HRP stamps,
some of the stamps themselves,
and all manner of other 'bits and pieces'. One which did attract my serious attention was this extraordinary Chinese carved wooden seat.
Whilst it is a little difficult to describe how this actually works, the various channels carved into this seat are designed to carry rivulets of tea, which can be eventually be sourced by those sitting on the seat for their drinking pleasure. This was something indeed, and beautifully carved as you can see.
The doorway immediately to the right of the seat is also significant, for, as its plaque proclaims, behind it lies the office of no less a person than..............
Beyond this edifice to himself we come to the chapel building, complete with the exterior gravestone which marks the passing of LC's wife, Shirley. Like the remainder of the HRP infrastructure, I found the construction material and style of this building to be disappointingly bland. This is Australia's premier micro-nation for heaven's sake....where's the panache?
There were a few surprises inside, including an extensive range of religious art works, and facing the congregational pews either side of the preaching rostrum,
two 'throne chairs' (his and hers) in which members of the public are cordially invited to pose for a photo. Liz felt the need. I humoured her, but did not score heavily in the brownie points department for suggesting that the look on her face was a silly grin and commenting that that was most apt for the occasion!
Next on the agenda was the Government Office and Post office building and what an eclectic range of 'stuff' these house.
Medals representing the various Orders of Merit of the HRP, all with impressively imposing titles,
and certificates to match
sit side by side with displays of international bank notes,
the art work depicting the range of the original HRP stamps,
some of the stamps themselves,
and all manner of other 'bits and pieces'. One which did attract my serious attention was this extraordinary Chinese carved wooden seat.
Whilst it is a little difficult to describe how this actually works, the various channels carved into this seat are designed to carry rivulets of tea, which can be eventually be sourced by those sitting on the seat for their drinking pleasure. This was something indeed, and beautifully carved as you can see.
The doorway immediately to the right of the seat is also significant, for, as its plaque proclaims, behind it lies the office of no less a person than..............
Just who are these people? Well, here you can see for yourself. As we were nosing about the Government Offices
who should appear but Leonard himself in for the morning to assist his son Graeme, the family member who, as I mentioned previously, manages the tourist enterprise at HRP. Whilst Graeme was the epitome of charm and grace, Leonard, for the short period we had to observe him, appeared much more reserved. He looks understandably frail and worn given his age, (he is now 88) the recent loss of his wife, and the challenges he set himself throughout his life, a life which, by any account, could be described as colourful.
So, what is his story and that of HRP? I'll attempt brevity, but it is a tale. Casely was born in Kalgoorlie. He left school at the age of 14 and sought work in Perth, where, for some years he was employed in the shipping industry. During this time he closely studied the regulations controlling the export of agricultural produce, acquiring a 'bush lawyer' mentality along the way. This was to stand him in good stead in his later dealings with Government.
Casley married Shirley Butler (pictured here with his wife in all their HRP finery),
served with the RAAF in Borneo during WW2, and later, after a number of occupations, bought farming land near Northampton in the WA wheatbelt.
His marriage to Shirley was a highly successful union, during which she gave birth to their seven children, five boys and two girls. Shirley's death on 7 July 2013 was a great personal blow to Casley.
Casley is an avowed adherent of Hermeticism, a tradition of religious and philosophical beliefs based on the writings of the ancient Greek, Hermes Trismegistum (don't bother with any more....I delved briefly out of curiosity...my head is still spinning!) and, as I noted earlier, is a self styled mathematician and physicist. His claims to have written papers for NASA are unsubstantiated.
Interestingly, at one stage he apparently became so peeved by the fact that his academic meanderings were not attracting the degree of serious consideration he believed to be their due, he set about burning all is papers. Goodwife Shirley was alerted to this fact and is credited with saving much of his work.
Irrespective of the rocky academic road Casley trod, he was undoubtedly a very successful wheat farmer, and herein lay the seeds of his scrap with the Government. In 1969 the Western Australian government introduced an Act to regulate the sale of grain by applying a quota scheme which embraced all producers. I have not been able to discover why this was done, but by any reading of the system, the descriptor 'draconian' borders on the bland.
In Casley's case, under this system, he was allowed to sell only 1,647 bushels of wheat. To give that some perspective, this was equivalent to taking off 40 acres of his ripened crop, but the snag was that he had 100 times that much ready for harvest and sale. His appeal to the Government to reconsider fell on deaf ears. The family income and future livelihood was under severe threat. Casley acted promptly by seizing Government land surrounding his property as a method by which to force a quota increase. To give this action some veneer of legal legitimacy, he cleverly relied on a principle of the common law, 'unjust enrichment', as the basis for having done so.
Understandably, the WA Government was having none of this. A Bill was rapidly introduced into parliament to resume these lands under compulsory acquisition. Casley requested that this Bill was not enacted, with a predictable result, and so, on 21 April 1970, he and associates 'seceded' on the basis of a claimed right at International Law.
The WA Government was flummoxed, and sought Commonwealth intervention. This fell on deaf Federal ears in what I rather suspect (and I do have some independent memory of these events) was a rather 'Pontius Pilot' reaction.
As part of all this manoeuvring, some unknown bureaucrat in a Commonwealth Government department addressed a letter to Casley referring to him as 'The Administrator of the Hutt River Province'. From a government perspective, this proved to be a critical and far reaching error.
On the basis that the correspondence came from the Commonwealth Government, 'a formal representative of the Monarch', Casley immediately claimed that it demonstrated 'legally binding recognition' of the autonomy of HRP. Clever move, and one which did have some basis in law, albeit tenuous.
Billy McMahon, the then Prime Minister, was less than impressed. (I have a delightful mental picture of Billy huffing and puffing, large ears flapping, snorting his outrage in that whining patrician accent of his). He threatened federal prosecution for 'infringement of territory'.
Casley responded immediately. He proclaimed himself as 'His Majesty Prince Leonard I of Hutt' and invoked the provisions of the British Treason Act of 1495, yes 1495! Like much of the British law which was transported to the Australian colonies along with the convicts, this archaic Act retained force and effect in Australia at the time, pursuant to the Constitutional and other arrangements (a bit like the erstwhile ability of an Australian citizen to appeal to the Privy Council).
In what can only be described as a master stroke, Casley identified and relied on a Clause in that Act which stated that 'anyone who interfered with a self-proclaimed monarch could be charged with treason'. Incredible as it sounds this was an arguably valid legal position at the time. Checkmate!
Whilst, as could be expected, the Commonwealth Government has since moved to strike down this and many other anachronistic British statue and common law provisions previously applicable in Australia, the Constitutional restraints applicable to 'retrospective' legalisation meant that Casley's position remained unchallenged by the Commonwealth.
On 21 April 1972, on the basis of the fact that two years had passed with no overt government interference, Casley declared that HRP had acquired defacto autonomy. He then set about creating much of the trappings of normal government, including the production of stamps (Australia post would not deliver to HRP until 1980 when a Perth court handed down a decision which ruled that the HRP stamps and coinage were valid within the province), coins, an honours system and the creation of a heraldry which included the bestowal of formal titles on each family member.
And, through all of this, Casley continued to grow and sell as much wheat as he could produce.
But wait, like the old TV Stanley knife set, there is more! As could be expected, whilst the federal and state governments had withdrawn from the field of conflict, more I suspect on the principle of 'why give a fire more oxygen' than anything else, this was not good enough for that paragon of Australian bureaucratic virtue, the Australian Taxation Office.
The ATO persued Casley with a vengeance. Finally, in response, on 7 December 1977, Casley formally declared war on Australia. I am unsure if he chose that date deliberately (date of the Pearl Harbour attack), but, as you would expect, in another silly move which demonstrates the degree to which Casley was running legal rings around them, there was no official response from the Feds.
Several days later Casley notified the Commonwealth of a cessation of hostilities. Now all this sounds so 'Gilbert and Sullivan' that nobody really took it seriously. But in another masterstroke, Casley then invoked International Law, relying on a provision which states that 'soverinty is automatic to a country undefeated in a state of war....and if that state of war is not recognised by the other party once notice is given, then their conventions apply to their relations.' The conventions referred to? Nothing less than the Geneva Convention.
Casley then argued that he had established what is know at law as a 'persuasive precedent' for International recognition of HRP. In the truest and most original application of that now sadly misused word of the Australian vernacular...what a ratbag! But a bloody clever one.
I rather suspect Casley can claim more than a moral victory out of all this. The ATO now formally recognises him as 'a foreign national and non-resident of Australia'. But does he pay tax? No one is quite sure. The ATO remains silent pursuant to the confidentially constraints which patina all its dealings, and Casley, oddly enough, is not saying anything, but he does make an annual financial grant to the nearby Northampton Shire.
What a determined and cunning old fox Casley has proven to be. I mentioned before that he has bestowed titles on all the family as a so-called 'legal protective machanism', but when you actually read what some of these are, I am persuaded that there is much more to it than that.
Let's take Graeme, for example, here pictured with his dad some years ago. Graeme is a trained teacher, who, as I detailed previously, is the family member who runs the HRP tourist enterprise. His formal title as taken directly from the HRP website reads:
'Prince Graeme Ernest Casley, Duke of Gilboa, Earl of Canan, Minister of State Education, Chancellor of the Royal Court, Grand Master of the Order of Wisdom and Learning.' What nonsense. I cannot be convinced that the 'legal protective requirements' would demand anything other than the title 'Prince Graeme'.
But despite the fact that this fairly tale stuff applies to all the children, they are, nevertheless, a productive lot in the real world. HRP exports wildflowers, stamps, coins and agriculture produce both locally and internationally. An estimated 40,000 tourists, most from overseas, visit the property each year.
Notwithstanding the outcome of all Casley's legal manoeuvring and claims of sovereign status, HRP, one of a surprising number of micro-nations in Australia (nearly 30 believe it or not), and indeed the world (Casley is credited with leading the charge) the province is not recognised formally either locally or internationally. Indeed, the Council of European Union has gone as far as to declare that the 'passports' issued by HRP are to be viewed as 'fantasy passports....issued by private organisations and individuals'.
It remains open to the WA Government to launch a legal challenge as to the status and validity of HRP at law, but I strongly suspect that the lack of action in this regard is one which recognises that this will do little other than raise howls of 'underdog' protest and, in a perverse manner, bestow more credibility on HRP than, in my opinion, it deserves.
If any of you in the MobileMarshies reader world consider my views to be somewhat harsh, consider this. The blurb relating to HRP notes that the Province does not maintain a 'standing army', but notes that guardsmen attend Prince Leonard on formal occasions. Furthermore, despite the fact the HRP is completely landlocked, 'naval commissions' have been bestowed on favoured supporters. Ye Gods! One wonders who is sillier, the donor or the recipient.
Phew!!....and believe me that was the 'short version'. Let's get back to our tour. Opposite the Government and Post Offices we come to the building in which more 'historical' items are displayed, together with the souvenirs on sale to the public.
Here again, Graeme Casley took a deal of time to show us many of the myriad of items on display and to explain their origins and significance. And as I have said before, if he is anything less than absolutely sincere in his belief and commitment to the HRP cause, he is an actor of significant skill. I did my best to feign rapt attention to all he was saying, but found it all so sadly bizarre that I resorted to 'happy snapping'.
And bizarre is the word to describe this collection in which, for example a display of LC's quite legitimate and official WW2 memorabilia can be found side by side
with a photo in the 'local rag' of LC dressed in the uniform of the 'Admiral of the Royal Hutt River Navy' (remember HRP is landlocked)
or copies of 'The Official Journal of the Royal Hutt River Defence Force'. (remember HRP has no standing army).
who should appear but Leonard himself in for the morning to assist his son Graeme, the family member who, as I mentioned previously, manages the tourist enterprise at HRP. Whilst Graeme was the epitome of charm and grace, Leonard, for the short period we had to observe him, appeared much more reserved. He looks understandably frail and worn given his age, (he is now 88) the recent loss of his wife, and the challenges he set himself throughout his life, a life which, by any account, could be described as colourful.
So, what is his story and that of HRP? I'll attempt brevity, but it is a tale. Casely was born in Kalgoorlie. He left school at the age of 14 and sought work in Perth, where, for some years he was employed in the shipping industry. During this time he closely studied the regulations controlling the export of agricultural produce, acquiring a 'bush lawyer' mentality along the way. This was to stand him in good stead in his later dealings with Government.
Casley married Shirley Butler (pictured here with his wife in all their HRP finery),
served with the RAAF in Borneo during WW2, and later, after a number of occupations, bought farming land near Northampton in the WA wheatbelt.
His marriage to Shirley was a highly successful union, during which she gave birth to their seven children, five boys and two girls. Shirley's death on 7 July 2013 was a great personal blow to Casley.
Casley is an avowed adherent of Hermeticism, a tradition of religious and philosophical beliefs based on the writings of the ancient Greek, Hermes Trismegistum (don't bother with any more....I delved briefly out of curiosity...my head is still spinning!) and, as I noted earlier, is a self styled mathematician and physicist. His claims to have written papers for NASA are unsubstantiated.
Interestingly, at one stage he apparently became so peeved by the fact that his academic meanderings were not attracting the degree of serious consideration he believed to be their due, he set about burning all is papers. Goodwife Shirley was alerted to this fact and is credited with saving much of his work.
Irrespective of the rocky academic road Casley trod, he was undoubtedly a very successful wheat farmer, and herein lay the seeds of his scrap with the Government. In 1969 the Western Australian government introduced an Act to regulate the sale of grain by applying a quota scheme which embraced all producers. I have not been able to discover why this was done, but by any reading of the system, the descriptor 'draconian' borders on the bland.
In Casley's case, under this system, he was allowed to sell only 1,647 bushels of wheat. To give that some perspective, this was equivalent to taking off 40 acres of his ripened crop, but the snag was that he had 100 times that much ready for harvest and sale. His appeal to the Government to reconsider fell on deaf ears. The family income and future livelihood was under severe threat. Casley acted promptly by seizing Government land surrounding his property as a method by which to force a quota increase. To give this action some veneer of legal legitimacy, he cleverly relied on a principle of the common law, 'unjust enrichment', as the basis for having done so.
Understandably, the WA Government was having none of this. A Bill was rapidly introduced into parliament to resume these lands under compulsory acquisition. Casley requested that this Bill was not enacted, with a predictable result, and so, on 21 April 1970, he and associates 'seceded' on the basis of a claimed right at International Law.
The WA Government was flummoxed, and sought Commonwealth intervention. This fell on deaf Federal ears in what I rather suspect (and I do have some independent memory of these events) was a rather 'Pontius Pilot' reaction.
As part of all this manoeuvring, some unknown bureaucrat in a Commonwealth Government department addressed a letter to Casley referring to him as 'The Administrator of the Hutt River Province'. From a government perspective, this proved to be a critical and far reaching error.
On the basis that the correspondence came from the Commonwealth Government, 'a formal representative of the Monarch', Casley immediately claimed that it demonstrated 'legally binding recognition' of the autonomy of HRP. Clever move, and one which did have some basis in law, albeit tenuous.
Billy McMahon, the then Prime Minister, was less than impressed. (I have a delightful mental picture of Billy huffing and puffing, large ears flapping, snorting his outrage in that whining patrician accent of his). He threatened federal prosecution for 'infringement of territory'.
Casley responded immediately. He proclaimed himself as 'His Majesty Prince Leonard I of Hutt' and invoked the provisions of the British Treason Act of 1495, yes 1495! Like much of the British law which was transported to the Australian colonies along with the convicts, this archaic Act retained force and effect in Australia at the time, pursuant to the Constitutional and other arrangements (a bit like the erstwhile ability of an Australian citizen to appeal to the Privy Council).
In what can only be described as a master stroke, Casley identified and relied on a Clause in that Act which stated that 'anyone who interfered with a self-proclaimed monarch could be charged with treason'. Incredible as it sounds this was an arguably valid legal position at the time. Checkmate!
Whilst, as could be expected, the Commonwealth Government has since moved to strike down this and many other anachronistic British statue and common law provisions previously applicable in Australia, the Constitutional restraints applicable to 'retrospective' legalisation meant that Casley's position remained unchallenged by the Commonwealth.
On 21 April 1972, on the basis of the fact that two years had passed with no overt government interference, Casley declared that HRP had acquired defacto autonomy. He then set about creating much of the trappings of normal government, including the production of stamps (Australia post would not deliver to HRP until 1980 when a Perth court handed down a decision which ruled that the HRP stamps and coinage were valid within the province), coins, an honours system and the creation of a heraldry which included the bestowal of formal titles on each family member.
And, through all of this, Casley continued to grow and sell as much wheat as he could produce.
But wait, like the old TV Stanley knife set, there is more! As could be expected, whilst the federal and state governments had withdrawn from the field of conflict, more I suspect on the principle of 'why give a fire more oxygen' than anything else, this was not good enough for that paragon of Australian bureaucratic virtue, the Australian Taxation Office.
The ATO persued Casley with a vengeance. Finally, in response, on 7 December 1977, Casley formally declared war on Australia. I am unsure if he chose that date deliberately (date of the Pearl Harbour attack), but, as you would expect, in another silly move which demonstrates the degree to which Casley was running legal rings around them, there was no official response from the Feds.
Several days later Casley notified the Commonwealth of a cessation of hostilities. Now all this sounds so 'Gilbert and Sullivan' that nobody really took it seriously. But in another masterstroke, Casley then invoked International Law, relying on a provision which states that 'soverinty is automatic to a country undefeated in a state of war....and if that state of war is not recognised by the other party once notice is given, then their conventions apply to their relations.' The conventions referred to? Nothing less than the Geneva Convention.
Casley then argued that he had established what is know at law as a 'persuasive precedent' for International recognition of HRP. In the truest and most original application of that now sadly misused word of the Australian vernacular...what a ratbag! But a bloody clever one.
I rather suspect Casley can claim more than a moral victory out of all this. The ATO now formally recognises him as 'a foreign national and non-resident of Australia'. But does he pay tax? No one is quite sure. The ATO remains silent pursuant to the confidentially constraints which patina all its dealings, and Casley, oddly enough, is not saying anything, but he does make an annual financial grant to the nearby Northampton Shire.
What a determined and cunning old fox Casley has proven to be. I mentioned before that he has bestowed titles on all the family as a so-called 'legal protective machanism', but when you actually read what some of these are, I am persuaded that there is much more to it than that.
Let's take Graeme, for example, here pictured with his dad some years ago. Graeme is a trained teacher, who, as I detailed previously, is the family member who runs the HRP tourist enterprise. His formal title as taken directly from the HRP website reads:
'Prince Graeme Ernest Casley, Duke of Gilboa, Earl of Canan, Minister of State Education, Chancellor of the Royal Court, Grand Master of the Order of Wisdom and Learning.' What nonsense. I cannot be convinced that the 'legal protective requirements' would demand anything other than the title 'Prince Graeme'.
But despite the fact that this fairly tale stuff applies to all the children, they are, nevertheless, a productive lot in the real world. HRP exports wildflowers, stamps, coins and agriculture produce both locally and internationally. An estimated 40,000 tourists, most from overseas, visit the property each year.
Notwithstanding the outcome of all Casley's legal manoeuvring and claims of sovereign status, HRP, one of a surprising number of micro-nations in Australia (nearly 30 believe it or not), and indeed the world (Casley is credited with leading the charge) the province is not recognised formally either locally or internationally. Indeed, the Council of European Union has gone as far as to declare that the 'passports' issued by HRP are to be viewed as 'fantasy passports....issued by private organisations and individuals'.
It remains open to the WA Government to launch a legal challenge as to the status and validity of HRP at law, but I strongly suspect that the lack of action in this regard is one which recognises that this will do little other than raise howls of 'underdog' protest and, in a perverse manner, bestow more credibility on HRP than, in my opinion, it deserves.
If any of you in the MobileMarshies reader world consider my views to be somewhat harsh, consider this. The blurb relating to HRP notes that the Province does not maintain a 'standing army', but notes that guardsmen attend Prince Leonard on formal occasions. Furthermore, despite the fact the HRP is completely landlocked, 'naval commissions' have been bestowed on favoured supporters. Ye Gods! One wonders who is sillier, the donor or the recipient.
Phew!!....and believe me that was the 'short version'. Let's get back to our tour. Opposite the Government and Post Offices we come to the building in which more 'historical' items are displayed, together with the souvenirs on sale to the public.
Here again, Graeme Casley took a deal of time to show us many of the myriad of items on display and to explain their origins and significance. And as I have said before, if he is anything less than absolutely sincere in his belief and commitment to the HRP cause, he is an actor of significant skill. I did my best to feign rapt attention to all he was saying, but found it all so sadly bizarre that I resorted to 'happy snapping'.
And bizarre is the word to describe this collection in which, for example a display of LC's quite legitimate and official WW2 memorabilia can be found side by side
with a photo in the 'local rag' of LC dressed in the uniform of the 'Admiral of the Royal Hutt River Navy' (remember HRP is landlocked)
or copies of 'The Official Journal of the Royal Hutt River Defence Force'. (remember HRP has no standing army).
Two Pro Hart originals
share wall space with heraldic flags and banners from goodness knows where (the purple banner is actually one depicting the official HRP coat of arms which I have to acknowledge has been very thoughtfully conceived and designed).
Displays of certificates, some declaring ties with European nobility, sit in the same cases as a uniform badge of the Victoria Police (far right centre). It just goes on and on.
Liz's display of polite interest was a wonder to behold. As for me, I hopefully managed to mask my mounting feelings of incredulity as to the surreal and often contrary nature of this whole exhibition by focusing on snapping away. I had no wish whatsoever to offend the earnest and charming 'Prince Graeme, but I had, but this time, reached my limit.
On a more positive note, I must acknowledge and pay credit to the extraordinary enterprise which has obviously been required to conceive, design and manufacture the trappings of the infrastructure of 'government'. The coins, the stamps and the medallions etc associated with the HRP 'orders of merit' (as this rather poorly photographed example demonstrates), are impressively well done.
But then there is this, outdoor artwork oddities housed in unkempt garden settings. We rather suspect that Shirley's passing is being felt in more ways than one at HRP.
So, with a passing glance at the HRP official vehicle, a 'Roller' of course, housed somewhat ignominiously behind this shade cloth door,
we took our leave of the Principality of Hutt River Province, for my part with the inescapable feeling that I had just had a modern day 'Alice in Wonderland' experience. I think one of the foreign tourists we overheard summed it up....."you just have to treat all this as a bit of fun".
But I think there is much more the HRP than that, as its history clearly demonstrates, and I do wonder what will become of this Australian oddity with the passing of Leonard. Will his successor, Ian, the eldest son, have the drive and desire to maintain the status quo or will the Casley family return to the real world?
Here is a classic case where harsh and unreasonable Government measures drove a determined and canny man to extraordinary lengths to preserve his income and provide for his family. It seems now that what began as an arguably morally legitimate struggle by an individual against overtly unconscionable government actions, may have morphed into a fairy tale and enveloped the Casley family in an inescapable web of fantasy with few boundaries. So from here....only time will tell.
Thanks for the article.
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