Many of the readers from Australia would be familiar with the attempt by farmer Leonard Casley to secede from the Federation of Australia because of a dispute over wheat quotas and to avoid paying a whack of back taxes he owed (he subsequently lost a court battle over the taxes - see https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/wa/WASC/1980/3.html) and the State of W.A and the Commonwealth of Australia never recognised his claim to secede.

Never one to give up easily, he acted as if he actually was independent and set up a plethora of false organisations (including a so called 'Air Force' with several light planes, the interest of this article), issued his own stamps, coins and visas for people to 'visit' the 'Principality' etc. Their website is no longer complete with all the info it once had, but some idea of the extent to which the family went can be gleaned from the still extant website at https://www.principality-hutt-river.com. In 2019 the claimant ('Prince' Leonard) died and less than a year later the family sold the property (under Australian law) to divide assets and pay unpaid Australian taxes.

The Air Force is known to have included at three airframes, actually owned by supporters:
1. A Fuji FA-200 Aero Subaru VH-FJA

2. A Cessna 182P Skylane VH-DXC which actually had the HRAF insignia on it's tail.

3. A Lake LA-4-200 Buccaneer VH-EDY (image Geoff Goodall)

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