Australian virtual states

This page highlights some past and contemporary Australian 'virtual state' projects.

It covers -

• Camside, Sherwood and Lyster
• Hutt
• Koronis, Bumbunga and Co
• Avram
• Aeterna Lucina
• Atlantium

They illustrate the range of motivations in establishment of virtual states, from amiable eccentricity to protest to outright fraud.

     Camside

Australian entrepreneur David Siminton operated an unregistered bank, the Terra Nova Cache (promising 50% returns from investment in shiny metals), from the so-called State of Sherwood in the Principality of Camside - perhaps not unfairly characterised by one critic as Scamside.

He had reportedly "declared war" on the Australian government - although the principality does not appear to have been much more extensive than a post office box - and unsuccessfully called on the Prime Minister to surrender.

Siminton's assets were instead frozen in 2005 by APRA, the Australian supervisor of financial institutions. He has attracted attention through association with proponents of the claim that Elizabeth II and other notables are in fact disguised six foot tall green skinned lizards. As of November 2007 he faced 16 months in prison for contempt of court.

In 2003 the Federal Court jailed internet trader Neal Arthur Lyster after his failure to comply with conditions of a suspended sentence that followed action by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission regarding misleading and deceptive conduct through a site promoting 'Purple Harmony Plates' (ACCC v Purple Harmony Plates Pty Ltd (No 4) [2003] FCA 49).

Justice Goldberg rejected submissions from Lyster that decisions of the Court were void, commenting

Mr Lyster is labouring under a delusion that he is the head of a non-existent state and that his conduct is beyond the reach of the laws of Australia. Mr Lyster should realise he is quite wrong in this respect.

Claims by Lyster that he had seceded from the Commonwealth of Australia and was not subject to the Court's jurisdiction were thus unconvincing. Claims of secession or renunciation of everything from library cards and passports to (oh so conveniently) an obligation to debts are not uncommon. They are found for example in the US 'Christian Identity' movement discussed here.

     Hutt

The Hutt River Province was founded in 1970, when a Western Australian farmer - later self-described as His Royal Highness Prince Leonard of the Hutt River Principality - declared his property independent after a dispute over wheat quotas.

Unsurprisingly the principality was not recognised by Australian national or state government agencies and courts. Assertions of independence were disingenous and in an echo of the 'Kingdom of Lundy' the province/principality prospered by sharing the fruits of its status as tourist destination with the Australian Taxation Office.

     Koronis, Bumbunga & Co

Hutt inspired several less commercially successful epigones, including -

• Alex Brackstone's Province of Bumbunga near Snowtown in 1976 (better known for the later 'bodies in the barrels' case)
• the Independent State of Rainbow Creek in Victoria in 1979
• the Principality of Marlborough declared by farmer George Muirhead in Queensland in 1993 (state police evicted Muirhead after 10 days)
• the United Federation of Koronis which delightfully claims both territory in Australia and the Koronis family of asteroids and advises that "citizenship is open to life forms", although "it does not yet have facilities on the asteroids to house and look after anyone seeking asylum on our sovereign territory and as such it will not accept any request for asylum of any kind"
• the Principality of United Oceania, founded by Serene Highness Prince Peter The First (ak Peter Gillies) at Medowie after a dispute with Port Stephens Council in 2003
• the Principality of Snake Hill, near Mudgee, under Prince Paul in 2003 ("It was necessary to secede from Australia because two of our properties and income were stolen through a wrongful suit")
• the Principality of Range View, near Gatton, under Lyall-Lindsay Sempf in 2004
• the Principality of Ponderosa in Victoria - "a state where Christians, white Anglo-Saxons and capitalists are not discriminated against" - but defunct after 2005 when its founders were convicted of tax fraud
• the Principality of Caledonia Australis, under H.R.H. Prince Edward James Renton, the Prince Palatine
• Principalities of Argyll, Cochrane and Woodlands (all in Queensland) under Cecil Sempf and Sidney Esme Adel Sempf.

     Avram

The Duchy of Avram in Tasmania was established in 1980 by John Rudge, holder of a Doctorate in Sacred Theology and a Doctorate of Divinity, degrees that were presumably useful when he appointed himself as Cardinal, Archbishop of the Royal See of the Continent of Australia in 1982. (Being Prince John, the Grand Duke of Avram, Marquis of Mathra, Earl of Enoch, Viscount Ulom, Lord Rama etc was apparently insufficient.)

After gaining attention as an anti-tax campaigner "His Grace the Duke of Avram" established the Royal Bank of Avram and produced his own coins and banknotes. That provoked intervention by the Australian Federal Police in 1985. Rudge was later elected to the Tasmanian Parliament. He appears to have recognised Australian law in a range of court cases, eg here.

The Duchy currently appears to be selling a range of peerages in addition to the usual coins and banknotes.

     Aeterna Lucina

The Sovereign State of Aeterna Lucina (aka the Sovereign Humanitarian Mission State of Aeterna Lucina) moved around Australia for some twenty years from 1978.

It was founded by Supreme Lord Paul Neuman, self-described Baron Neuman of Kara Bagh, a German-born pensioner with a penchant for awarding himself honorifics (one source claims a mere 870 doctorates, awards and knighthoods - usually from chivalric orders that appear to have had a membership of one).

The state was initially located on a Neuman property near Byron Bay, later moving to his Curl Curl residence and then to a farm near Cooma.

Aeterna's associates gained attention in 1989 regarding prosecutions in NSW over alleged land sale and visa offences. It attracted criticism overseas regarding degree mills and the sale of supposed honours. It lives on the collectibles market, with trade in its documents and heraldic orders.

     Atlantium

The Empire of Atlantium boasts its own potentate, coinage, calendar and (alas) a post office box in Potts Point, Australia.

It was founded by 15 year old George Cruickshank, who obligingly mugged for media photographs, and claims that it is

a legitimate, functioning, primarily non-territorial microstate and proto-world state that possesses immanent, parallel global sovereignty. The purpose of Atlantium is to promote via its existence the fact that sovereignty in the modern world does not need to ... have any form of territorial basis, and that every individual has the right to choose his or her citizenship irrespective of where they were born, or where they live.

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