While we think of Australia as having a dominating federal government with powerful states overseeing wide swathes of land; there has been since the 1970s another movement, that of self-proclaimed independent states. Secessionist movements have not stopped with Western Australia's successful referendum to break-away either.
Self-Proclaimed
Stamps and tourism seem to be the main economic function of these micronations, microstates and self-proclaimed states.
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Hutt River Province
(WA). Established in 1970 by Prince Leonard, probably best known for its internal political squabbles in the 80s and 90s.
[
Wikipedia on Hutt River Province
]
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Bumbunga (SA). This province was founded in 1976 and contains a field which has a map of the British Isles constructed from strawberry plants. Also known for printing its own stamps much to Australia Post's annoyance.
[
Wikipedia on Bumbunga
]
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Atlantium
(NSW). This microstate was founded in 1981 in South Sydney. An apartment serves as its embassy to Australia.
[
Wikipedia on Atlantium
]
Statehood Movements
The
New States
website advocates the establishment of a New England state in northern NSW, a Capricornia state in Northern Queensland and a Northern Australia state which covers the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia.
There is a history of statehood activism in northern NSW and Queensland. A referendum on New England seceding from NSW was held in 1967 which failed. Its claims quite large boundaries, stretching from Newcastle to the Queensland border. Newcastle is becoming more and more integrated into the Sydney economy, shedding its industrialism for services. With the NSW freeway people actually commute from southern Newcastle to work in Sydney.
The Capricornia proposal covers central and northern Queensland with Charters Towers as its capital. Charters Towers was a hotbed of activism in the late 1800s, due in no small part to the fiery rhetoric and polemics of Frederick Vosper. Another republican which features heavily on SSR is John Dunmore-Lang. In his book in 1852 he advocated three Queensland provinces/states. There have been several attempts to have North Queensland secede Queensland, but none have made it through despite its popularity. One movement produced a very modern
North Queensland flag which incorporates the Australia pale design
.
More Reading on Micronations
Most Popular on South Sea Republic
The articles that have been viewed the most:
Most Popular Restaurants in Phoenix
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Most Popular Hikes in Arizona
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Alternate Australian Constitutions
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
Archives For South Sea Republic
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
Who Is Cam Riley
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
Websites Worth Reading
Websites of friends, colleagues and of interest;
