[Lang:Eng] One interesting place in Western Australia

The Principality of Hutt River

• Overview
  

  

  
  There are lots of micronations in the world, and one of them is a floating nation on the sea and another one is claimed in someone’s apartment as well. Of course, they might have their own logical reason to claim it, but it is not accepted officially in the world. Now I would like to introduce one micronation which has existed until 3rd August 2020 in Western Australia.
  
  
• History
  Leonard George Casley, who was born in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, declared the principality because he was struggling about wheat production quotas with the government of Western Australia. He insisted that the government tried to take his family's property in force with compulsory acquisition laws which is introduced a bill into Parliament. The government and Casley couldn't find a common agreement, and in the end, he declared his land as an independent nation by international law in early 1970. Nonetheless, he still had loyalty to Queen Elizabeth II. After building his country, he tried several policies as an independent country. However, Leonard Casley died on 13 February 2019 and his 50-year-history of the micronation, the Principality of Hutt River, was over in his son's era in the middle of 2020 with the financials impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the continuous claim of the Australian Taxation Office.

 

• Additional information
  The Principality was located 517 km north of Perth near the Hutt River, and it covered about 75.9 square kilometres in size. The main income was from wildflowers, stamps, coins, exported agricultural product to overseas, and tourism. 40,000 tourists, who were mainly from overseas, visited every year. The residents were only 23 people, but according to their claiming, the citizens were 14,000 in worldwide.
  The National Museum of Australia held an exhibition on the theme of "Separation" within Australia including a Hutt River Province display. The Hutt River Province is left behind a historical area as many quite high up officials in Western Australia and even Australia attended the ceremony. The principality is shown on Google Maps, but only as a "tourist attraction", and the land of the Principality was sold off to pay the tax claim.
• Extra Information
  There are the other extra ordinary nations in the world such as the follows:
  - Asgardia is a self-proclaimed “space nation” founded in 2016. Its goal is to establish a space-based nation with its own constitution, government, and citizens. As of now, it exists primarily online and has not achieved official recognition.
  - The Principality of Sealand is a micronation located on an abandoned World War II Sea fort in the North Sea. It was established in 1967 and has its own flag, currency, and passports. While not officially recognized by any other country, it maintains a unique status.
  - Ladonia is an art project and micronation located in Sweden. It was created by artist Lars Vilks in 1996 and claims a rocky area called Nimis as its territory. Visitors can become citizens by joining the Ladonian Society.
• Conclusion
  The Principality of Hutt River was started from a dispute over wheat production quotas between the Government of Western Australia and the Casley family. No matter what happened in the middle of the journey, it is certainly an interesting history in Western Australia, and I believe that it left something behind. One of them is a unique and historical mark. Another one is an interesting tourist place in Western Australia.

 

 

 

• References
  - Wikipedia 
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Hutt_River 
  - Leonard George Casley 
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Casley 
  - List of micronations in Australia 
    https://micronations.wiki/wiki/List_of_micronations_in_Australia 
  - Extra information 
  Inquiry on MS Copilot with the keyword, “Give me a list of extra ordinary nations such as The Principality of Hutt River”.