My quote

"The World is simply my playground, everyone else just happens to be in it."

Wednesday 22 February 2012

A Right Royal Day Out


It’s not every day you get to meet royalty in their own home. 

It’s not every day you get a personal tour of their country lead by the Head of State. 

It’s not every day the aforementioned Head of State offers to put his robes of state on to pose with you for a photo.



It’s not every day you see the first lady in her dressing gown and hair curlers.

But then it’s not every day you visit the Principality of Hutt River, formerly known as the Hutt River Province, an independent sovereign state in Western Australia.

It’s a pleasant hour or so drive from our hostel in Geraldton on the coast, through Northampton (Australia’s place names can leave an Englishman very geographically confused at times) and inland past dusty farming land before nearing Hutt River.

A quick right hand turn and what is essentially just a gate giving access to a long driveway welcomes you to a new country.  It may be a small country, but in world terms it is larger than San Marino, Bermuda and Macau to name just a few and only marginally smaller than Guernsey.

It is mostly wheat farm land, with wheat farming quotas being the reason for the split from Australia back in the 70s, and has an official permanent population of a whopping 30, although it’s somehow warming to see that it has several thousand overseas citizens.

After a brief stop for the obvious border crossing photo opportunity, we trundle along the road and park up next to the post office.  An old man is feeding his dogs nearby, and a similarly aged woman pokes dressed in a pike dressing gown and hair curlers wanders out of her house to see what’s going on.

The man wanders over to say hello, and introduces himself as Prince Leonard I of Hutt.  The lady is his wife, the first lady.  Royalty is a fairly casual thing in these parts.  My mind briefly goes off on wanderings of its own and pictures arriving in the driveway of Balmoral or Buckingham Palace and being greeted in a similar way.
 
Prince Leonard, nearing 80 years of age at the time of my visit, but sprightly and full of life, was delighted to have more visitors to show around – a fairly regular occurrence for him and Hutt River it should be noted; the majority of backpackers I’d met in this part of Western Australia had all visited Hutt River too.

He took us around the principal sites of the country, namely the post office and bank, the passport scanner and stamp, and the State Room.  In the latter he offered to put on his robes of state and pose with each of us beneath the blue and white Hutt River flag.  I ask you, who could resist such a photo opportunity with a reigning Head of State and Prince?

Photos done, and back at the post office/bank Prince Leonard showed us some official Hutt River Dollars, rather conveniently tied 1:1 with the Australian Dollar, and unsurprisingly for sale at face value.  Such are the ways that small countries get their hard currency!  Another irresistible opportunity for me however.

Passport stamps were the next port of call, as Leonard took great delight in waving his UV scanner over each of our passports to demonstrate the hidden images on the pages of some countries passports that are there to flummox the forgers. 
 
He gave each of us an entry and exit stamp to his country.  Again another first for me.  I’d wager not many people have had their visas issued and passports stamped by a Head of State.  The exit visa was given on trust of course, but these highlights exhausted there wasn’t a whole lot more to see, unless you were into wheat farming, which I’m not.

A brief pause for some drinks sat at a shaded picnic table (quite possibly the only picnic table in the entire country!) and then it was time to leave Hutt River.  As novelty day trips go it was a hell of a memorable one.

We wave Prince Leonard I of Hutt a fond farewell as we trundle back along the dusty road that leads back to Australia.

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