[1] In November 1975 the Australian Labor Party government of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was dismissed under controversial circumstances by Governor-General John Kerr, the official governmental representative of Queen Elizabeth II.

To ensure that at least a portion of the Australian continent would always remain loyal to the British Crown, he declared his four-hectare property north of Adelaide to be the independent Province of Bumbunga on 29 March 1976, and appointed himself its governor-general.

Implementation was delayed when Australian customs authorities seized the soil Brackstone had imported from the UK, and the entire enterprise was scuttled when the strawberry fields perished during a drought.

[5] In 1980 Bumbunga began issuing cinderella stamps portraying members of the British royal family (except Sarah Ferguson, whom Brackstone disliked).

His assertion of diplomatic immunity due to his status as Bumbunga's sovereign was unsuccessful[12][13] but, according to Brackstone, the charges were ultimately dropped nevertheless.