Raising the drawbridge: why are so many Australians creating their own countries?
On 15 November 2004, Sydney artist Paul Delprat strode into Mosman Town Hall. For more than a decade the 1996 Mosman Citizen of the Year had waged a one-man battle against his local government in the affluent harbourside suburb. The saga stretched back to 1993, when Delprat first lodged an application to build a 25-metre driveway through a bushland reserve to improve access to his home. His application was approved, but a change to the council’s local environment plan to protect the bush overrode his approval. The land was rezoned, and the driveway plans were shelved.
Delprat was not about to take this lying down, issuing several protests with the council. However, by 2004 Mosman council had rejected every single one of his objections. What more could he do? There seemed only one possibility, Delprat explained: “Having been cut off from Mosman we could only reciprocate.”
Sporting a gold leaf crown and dressed in a flowing white robe, Delprat marched into mayor Shirley Jenkins’ office. Accompanied by local print media journalists and a national TV crew, Delprat handed over a formal-looking document. It announced his house had seceded to create a new nation named the Principality of Wy (after the neighbouring Wyargine Point).
In an instant, Paul Delprat became Prince Paul, and his struggle for a driveway a diplomatic stoush between two nations. Prince Paul hoped the situation could be resolved amicably.
Unfortunately, his much larger neighbour was dismissive. In 2010, Anne Connon, the new mayor, remarked: “I look at it with a degree of wry amusement. But it’s not of any great importance.”
Prince Paul has not (yet) convinced the council to allow construction of his driveway. Nonetheless, the war has been expensive for all sides. Reports suggest that the council has spent more than $130,000 defending its actions in the land and environment court. While the council was successful in that foray, it finds itself arrayed against a creative enemy. Prince Paul has sketched preliminary plans for a medieval-style drawbridge to finally improve access to his home without damaging the protected bushland.
Perhaps the greatest challenge to the principality comes from within. Prince Paul admits that his adult children are “somewhat embarrassed” by the royal titles he has conferred upon them. Prince Paul is unmoved. As he explains, the Principality of Wy continues to thrive today, standing “as a beacon of hope to all those oppressed by bureaucracy”. Delprat’s actions may be bizarre and even extreme, but they are far from unique. Eccentric and enterprising individuals around the world have created their own micronations for these and many other reasons.
Micronations are a global phenomenon. However, the ease with which they can be established (and abandoned) makes it difficult to work out the total number around the world. One point is clear. A disproportionately high number of micronations are in Australia. Some estimates suggest that onethird of all micronations are located there.
You may have heard of some of them. Prince Leonard created the Principality of Hutt River in a dispute over wheat quotas in the 1970s. The Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands was founded in protest against the 2004 law that banned samesex marriage. The Empire of Atlantium is located in regional New South Wales and has more than 3,000 citizens – almost four times the population of the Vatican City.
Australia’s relaxed approach is part of why it hosts so many of these wannabe nations. While many countries might try to put down would-be rebels either through force of arms or force of law, Australia largely tolerates the strange, earnest and eccentric people who claim to create their own country – so long as they continue to pay tax and follow the road rules. The Australian approach reflects three main themes.
First, the act of seceding from the state and declaring one’s own country is consistent with an Australian culture that celebrates larrikinism and mocking authority.
The public reaction to restrictions imposed by governments in response to the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated that Australians are generally content to follow the rules. However, even if Australians are “very obedient” towards authority, we remain “suspicious of persons in authority”.
What better way to mock authority than by “thumbing your nose” at the nation and founding your own country? After all, as Prince Paul of Wy notes, “deep in the psyche of Australians is a little bit of Ned Kelly”.
A second reason for the remarkable number of micronations in Australia draws on notions of security and stability. Australia occupies an entire continent and has few obvious security fears. For this reason, it sees micronations as irrelevant or, at worse, a nuisance, rather than a genuine threat. This perspective is very different from the attitude that countries with troubled histories of rebellion may adopt.
Threats of secession have a long history in Australia. In the 1930s Western Australia voted to leave the Federation, while state premiers routinely clash with Canberra. During the Covid pandemic, one survey found that 28% of Western Australians want to secede.
However, calls for secession are rarely meant to be taken literally. Rather, they are meant to indicate displeasure with policies or actions undertaken and adopted by the federal government – as well as a healthy disrespect for their claim to authority.
A final reason is spatial. Australia is a large country with a relatively small population. With 25 million people occupying more than 7.6 million square kilometres, Australia has a population density of three people per square kilometre. This ranks Australia 192 out of 194 countries in the world for population density, ahead only of Namibia and Mongolia.
There is a lot of space for people who want to create their own country.
Harry Hobbs at UTS and George Williams at UNSW are the authors of How to Rule your Own Country: The Weird and Wonderful World of Micronations published by UNSW Press.