WA Trip - The Day We Accidentally Went to a Prince's Funeral

One of the weird but must-do stops on our trip was a visit to the Principality of Hutt River, an unrecognised micro nation that was declared sovereign from Australia in the 1970s.  The "ruler" Prince Leonard didn't agree with the wheat quota the government had introduced and ended up declaring war.  He used some obscure law to claim that their lack of response meant that he could succeed from the country, and thus his kingdom was born.  The principality has its own post office, currency, and passport stamp and seems to have a very different view from the Australian government on not having to pay taxes.
A week before our trip I was looking at the principality website and discovered that the Sunday we were going to go was the 49th anniversary of the founding.  Prince Leonard died earlier this year, and there was going to be a celebration of his life that day.  It was invitation-only, but all you had to do to get an invitation was send an email.  So of course I sent that email.

Prince Leonard had built a chapel for his Princess Shirley, and that's where we ended up realizing we were at this guy's funeral.  It was a tiny chapel, but it was packed full with people and flies to farewell this kookie man.  We got to hear stories of his entrepreneurship and creativity, and appreciate his independent way of thinking.  Finally, his ashes were put into a head stone at the front of the chapel.  And we got our passports stamped.
Inside the Chapel - and Prince Leonard's throne
Also on the compound was his statue, the post office, a little museum, and a garden with animal statues that he had assigned mathematical spirit numbers to.  Not sure I followed his logic, but good on him for having such conviction.



The museum
Mathematical Genius?  Or Wackadoodle?


Explanation of the kangaroo's spirit number
the post office
The other stop that day was at the beautiful Hutt Lagoon.  I always love a good pink lake - just ask Phil about the panic that ensued when we went to the Pink Lake in Esperance and it was NOT pink!  Hutt Lagoon was undeniably pink.  I don't think everyone else was as impressed with it as I was, but since I was the tour guide they didn't a have a choice but to see it.
Pink flamingos in the pink lake

Not so impressed with the pink lake
Very impressed with the pink lake
I feel like he might be humouring me


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Baw Baw Blog

Image
A couple weeks ago Phil set out to climb Mt Baw Baw again with a couple like-minded (read: crazy) bike friends.  We drove out with Les and met John and Glenda at the primary school in Drouin to start the ride.   The crazies started on their ride while John and I headed off to explore the area by car. Phil, Glenda, and Les at the start About 10km in to the ride, as they passed the Drouin West primary school, Phil realised that that was the place he meant to start, and now an already painful 80km ride had become 90km. John and I stopped at the Noojee Trestle Bridge and took a leisurely walk across.  Then we headed on to the "town" of Noojee and saw the sights - the water wheel that no one knows the origin of.  Then we enjoyed some lamingtons while we waited for the tiers to catch up.  They arrived and took a few minutes' break, then set out again on their adventure. Noojee Trestle Bridge Noojee Water Wheel John and I then drove to Tooronga Falls and had a re
Read more

One Sleep Until Citizenship!

Image
In January of 1649, Thos Morgan, my great great ..... grandfather, signed the death warrant for King Charles I, an act that in normal times would make him guilty of treason for conspiring against the monarchy.  He ended up fleeing to America, where he changed his last name to Carrier in order to avoid being sent back to England for trial.  Of course, later he married a woman who was tried and hung for being a witch, but that's another story... Three hundred and sixty two years later, I found myself taking a new job in Australia.  In order to get my work visa, I had to pledge allegiance to the monarchy of the same country that my ancestor fled from so many years ago.  And tomorrow, I'll take the Australian Citizenship Pledge and become a dual citizen. Besides the physical move, there were a lot of little details involved in getting to this point.  We arrived on a skilled worker visa, which required providing my resume and degree in addition to the lengthy application and emp
Read more

Missy and Emily's Tassie Trip - Freycinet National Park

Image
One of my absolute favourite places to explore in Tasmania (though to be honest it's all my favourite!) is Freycinet National Park.  But of course on the way we had to stop for some more local wine and oysters.  Wine is, after all, a great motivator for a hike! We hiked down to the stunning Wineglass Bay to take in the views there.  It was the perfect temperature so a hike, nice and sunny but not scorching and the water was an absolutely spectacular shade of turquoise. Another thing that was a spectacular shade of turquoise was the blue bottle jellyfish covering the beach.  This ended up limiting our time in the water but they were sure pretty to look at.  The hike back up is tougher - mainly because it's back up.  There's not really a break in the vertical climb back to the top.  But once we did reach the top we were rewarded with a nice view of the bay and surrounding park. Back at the carpark was this little wallaby, who I'
Read more