Province of Bumbunga

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Province of Bumbunga
Micronation
Flag	Coat of Arms
Anthem: "God Save the Queen"
Area claimed	4 ha (10 acres)
Membership	less than five permanent residents
Date of foundation	29 March 1976
Leadership	Governor Alex Brackstone
Purported organisational structure	Autonomous British colony
Language	English
Purported currency	Australian Dollar

The Province of Bumbunga was an Australian secessionist micronation located on a farm near Snowtown and Lochiel, (northeast of Adelaide), South Australia during the 1970s and 1980s.

The Province was founded by a British immigrant to Australia named Alex Brackstone, a former circus monkey-trainer, uranium prospector and postmaster.

In November, 1975, the Australian Labor Party government of Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was dismissed under controversial circumstances, by Governor-General John Kerr. Under the Australian system of constitutional monarchy, Kerr was the representative of Queen Elizabeth II in Australia. Brackstone was an ardent British monarchist, and becoming alarmed by what he saw to be a drift towards republicanism as a result of this set of circumstances, resolved to do what he could to ensure that at least part of the Australian landmass would always remain loyal to the British Crown.

A 1979 aerial photograph, facing north, of the Province of Bumbunga showing the gigantic strawberry patch shaped like Great Britain.

A 2006 photograph of the south western gate of the former Province of Bumbunga. This entrance faces east towards the location of Cornwall as shown in the 1979 photograph

To that end he declared his four-hectare property to be independent of Australia as the Province of Bumbunga on 29 March 1976 and assumed the position of and style of "Governor". Brackstone then set about attracting tourism by building a huge scale model of the Great Britain in his backyard, using thousands of strawberry plants. He intended to conduct weddings on this facility, during which soil from the appropriate county would be sprinkled on the ground. The Australian Customs Service prevented the implementation of this plan by seizing the soil Brackstone attempted to import from the UK, and the whole enterprise failed when the strawberry plants died during a drought.

In 1980 Bumbunga began issuing postage stamps with British monarchist themes, and these proved very popular with collectors. Later issues also embraced anti-nuclear themes, but changes to Australian investment laws reducing the attraction of philatelic investments led Brackstone abandon his commercial operations in 1987, and Bumbunga thereafter slid into relative oblivion until 1999, when he faced court on illegal firearms charges, and apparently unsuccessfully claimed immunity from prosecution due to his status as its Governor. Brackstone subsequently returned permanently to the UK.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

Local Stamps of Australia by Bill Hornadge, pub Review Publications, Dubbo, NSW, 1st ed. 1982, pp 49-52.
Cinderellas Australasia, Vol 2, No 1, Jan 1985, ISSN 0814-2971 p11
Cinderellas Australasia, Vol 3, No 3, Aug 1986, ISSN 0814-2971 p62
Stamp News, Vol 34, No 6, Jun 1986, p38
Mark Dapin (2005-02-12). "If at first you don't secede...". Sydney Morning Herald - Good Weekend. pp 47-50