A country spread over 75 sq kilometers lies within Australia that was composed of only one person in 1970. Even if you have an Australian Visa, you would need this country visa as well. One thing is good that, Visa on arrival is available here for merely 4 dollars.
This place is quite isolated & 500 kms away from Perth, which is a major Australian City. Leonard Casley is the man who brought this country into existence in 1970.
Why was this country brought?
The Government had passed a bill that caused a lot of problems between Leonard and the Government. The West Australian Government passed a Wheat Bill Quota in 1969 which stated that no farmers would be allowed to sell the harvest of more than 100 acres to the government. The problem lay in the fact that Leonards Farm produced around 1300 acres of wheat every year. What to do with this wheat? There will be no buyers at all. Leonard tried multiple ways to solve this problem but nothing came out. After some years he decided to make his own country so that Australian Laws would not be applicable on him and neither would the wheat quota bill be applicable.
There were two problems with this bill.
- No Compensation
- No Appeal
It means even if farmers had an issue with the bill, he couldn’t demand compensation from the government nor could he appeal against it. So, basically there was no way out. So Leonard studied the international laws and figured out how he could do it and make his own country. He named this Country “Principality of Hutt River” and eventually referred to himself as Prince Leonard. Because he stated that this country was a monarchy. Prince Leonard died in February, 2019 at the age of 93.
In today’s time, this country has Its own flag, its own currency, its own passport, its own postcards, stamps and Visa.
But the question that arises here is that would doing all of these make a country, a “Country”?
In this modern era, we have many micronations, many people claim personal sovereignty and their argument is why do I owe allegiance? That’s a whole another argument and we Don’t wish to be associated with micro nations because they are coming from a different place.
Eventually the answer of this question remains stuck at “A country would only be recognised as a country when the rest of the countries of the world consider it one. So none of the rest of the countries recognise the principality of Hutt River as a country. Australia states that this country was created as a measure to save tax.
In 2006, the European Union stated that the passport of this country is among the “fantasy passports of the world”. So, what remained with prince Leonard to prove that this country was a legit country?
He has a letter that has been written by Queen Elizabeth in 2016. Here she congratulated prince Leonard for the anniversary of this country. 90% of the countries of that era signed 11 criteria to class itself as an independent country. Those criteria need to be set and it was set by prince Leonard.Another thing that proves that this country is indeed a country is that all people living in this country.
Only one family member lives here, which is Prince Leonards family. They can’t get medical benefits, educational allowance, pensions or voting rights in Australia.
There are not a lot of things in this small place. There are 3-4 houses. One family resides here. Their farm is 75 sq kilometers. There is no school, hospital or any restaurants here. But this small place is revolutionary because It questions your beliefs. It forces you to question what a country actually is? What is the definition of a country? When can a person create a whole country?
This also shows to what extent a person can go to protect his personal rights and his freedom from his government. This was the tale of prince Leonard. If you go to this country, there Isn’t much to see but the roads that lead here are spectacular. There is crystal clear water, pink shade beaches, nature spread over vast expanses and there is also a pink lake here named “Hutt Lagoon”. All these attractions are around 60-100 k.m. away from the Hutt River.
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Writer
Ayesha Siddika Hamim
Intern, Content Writing Department,
YSSE