Principality of Hutt River
It was a micronation in Australia (C.E.1970–Now)
The Principality of Hutt River, often referred to by its former name, the Hutt River Province, was a micronation in Australia, proclaimed on 21 April 1970 when farmer Leonard Casley declared his farm to be a sovereign state, the "Hutt River Province". He claimed to have seceded from Australia, which occurred during his dispute with the authorities concerning wheat production quotas. A few years later, Casley began styling himself as "Prince Leonard" and granting family members royal titles, although he did not include the word "principality" in the official name until 2006. In 2017, Casley's claim to rulership was taken over by his son Graeme, who dropped the claim to sovereignty on 3 August 2020.
The claimed territory was located 517 km (321 mi) north of Perth, near the town of Northampton in the state of Western Australia. It had an area of 75 square kilometres (29 sq mi), making it larger than several recognised countries. It was not recognised as a country by the Australian Government or any other national government, and the High Court of Australia and Supreme Court of Western Australia rejected submissions arguing that it was not subject to Australian laws.
The "principality" was a regional tourist attraction until it announced it was closed to tourists after 31 January 2020. It issued its own currency, stamps and passports (which are not recognised by the federal Australian government or any other government).. It also had an anthem ("It's a Hard Land") written by Keith Kerwin in 1984.
The public source identifies “Principality of Hutt River” as it was a micronation in Australia (C.E.1970–Now). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Principality, Hutt and River.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q591309. Authority coordinates are -28.079, 114.480. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1970, 2006, 2017 and 2020.
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This entry incorporates text from “Principality of Hutt River” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.