PRINCIPALITY OF HUTT RIVER, Australia  “Some people do think that Hutt River is really a new, young country, but I get a lot of German tourists through here, and I take pride in telling them that Hutt River is not really a new, young country.

“It’s quite an old country. Germany’s just celebrated its 20th year,” said Leonard Casley, referring to unified Germany as he stood just a head taller than a huge bust of himself, his right arm draped over the replica of the crown of his own head. “We’ve celebrated our 40th year.”

Behind him, inside a red-brick gazebo-like structure where a footlong lizard had sought shelter from the beating sun, a laminated and framed letter from the Australian tax authorities to Mr. Casley read that he had “been deemed to be a non-resident of Australia for income-tax purposes.” As the sign next to it proclaimed, “Welcome to the Principality of Hutt River.”

At 40 years, Hutt River is the oldest micronation in Australia, sprawling over 18,500 acres of farmland in this dusty, windswept slice of Western Australia. Back then, angered about a government quota on wheat, Mr. Casley, now 85 and still the leader, took his land and broke away from the rest of Australia. The apparent secession gave birth not only to this principality but, tapping into Australia’s convict history and an enduring popular disdain for central authority, also inspired a proliferation of new micronations across the country.