Queen Elizabeth during a visit to Rainforest Walk, Southbank, on October 24, 2011 in Brisbane, Australia | Mechielsen Lyndon-Pool/Getty Images After Brexit, Britannia’s subjects head for AusExit Australian republicans report a 20-fold increase in membership requests.

SYDNEY — Here's one the Brexiteers didn't see coming.

Nigel Farage, the leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party, said leaving the EU would give Britain a chance to pivot towards the rest of the world, “starting with our friends in the Commonwealth.”

But it seems Brexit has, instead, caused some of those in the Commonwealth to renew calls to pivot — nay, tear — away from their old colonial masters.

Australian republicans, inspired by Britain's vote to reclaim sovereignty and throw off the shackles of foreigners governing it from afar, have flooded the internet with calls for an AusExit.

In the first 72 hours after Britain's historic decision to part ways with the EU, the Australian Republican Movement saw a 20-fold increase in membership requests, according to its chair Peter FitzSimons.

"Brexit definitely has pushed us forward, it's pushed us to the front of the agenda," said FitzSimons, an Australian writer, media personality and ex-rugby player.

"While it's one thing for monarchists to want to stay closely aligned with Great Britain, the question now is do we want to stay closely aligned with Little Britain," he said, adding: "If we had a referendum now, we would win. We would romp home."

The chaos in Britain both in the run up to the EU referendum, and after it, may also be helping.

"Great Britain, which seemed a veritable rock of Gibraltar of stability since Australia's convict days, is now verging on unstable" — Peter FitzSimons

"Great Britain, which seemed a veritable rock of Gibraltar of stability since Australia's convict days, is now verging on unstable," FitzSimons said. "I suspect that's part of what's driving the numbers of people who are flooding to the Australian Republican Movement."

Via her Australian proxy, the governor general, Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state of the constitutional monarchy of Australia. Though the role is largely symbolic, the governor general has special and opaque "reserve" powers, which include the ability to appoint a prime minister if an election results in a hung parliament, to dismiss a prime minister in the event of a "no confidence" vote, and to refuse to dissolve the House of Representatives against ministerial advice. The last time such powers were exercised was in 1975, when Governor General Sir John Kerr fired a democratically elected prime minister and forced a fresh federal election.

Australia had a shot at independence in 1999, but it was roundly rejected in a referendum.

At the time, the Australian prime minister, John Howard, was an avowed monarchist, while state and territory leaders had split loyalties.

The call for a republic dimmed as the queen's unpopular son Charles was displaced from newspaper and magazine pages by her more endearing grandchildren, princes William and Harry. William's wedding to Kate Middleton in 2011 was a salve to the burn for independence, and subsequent visits to Australia by Harry to review the Australian navy in 2013, followed by William, with his wife and young Prince George in tow, in 2014, seemed to reinforce the monarchy.

Since then, things have changed.

In 2014, the decision by then prime minister and monarchist Tony Abbott to reintroduce the antiquated "knights and dames" title system provoked widespread public backlash. His subsequent appointment of Prince Philip, the queen’s husband, as a knight of Australia, is widely seen as a turning point in Abbott's leadership, which eventually saw him deposed in a coup.

Political leaders' support for an Australian republic is now almost universal.

The Liberal prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, is a former chair of the Australian Republican Movement. And though Turnbull has said he won't push for another independence referendum during the queen's reign, he said earlier this year that his "commitment to Australia having an Australian as head of state is undiminished."

The Labour leader of the opposition, Bill Shorten, in November renewed his calls for a second independence referendum. "Our constitution came into being as an act of the British parliament — 114 years later, our nation has changed, our place in the world has changed, and our constitution should change with it," he wrote in an op-ed.

All of Australia's state and territory leaders also back independence. In January, all but one signed a statement declaring their support for an Australian head of state. At the time, Andrew Barr, the chief minister of the Australian Capital Territory, said: “Our ties with the monarchy continue to reflect a nation of the past. It’s time for us to grow up and stand on our own two feet.”

West Australian Premier Colin Barnett, who didn't sign the declaration, also supports an Australian republic.

Since the Brexit vote, other Australian politicians have joined the call for independence. "U.K. to leave EU. Scotland to leave U.K. About time Australia went its own way," Cameron Dick, the Queensland state health minister, tweeted.

Surely #Brexit must mean that it's time for our own referendum on an @AusRepublic... #AusExit — Jordan Grant (@jordiashley) June 27, 2016

New Zealand republicans say Brexit hasn't had the same impact on their membership. But Brits must, especially now, accept that the golden days of colonial rule are well and truly over.

"The impression we get from most British people, whether they are for or against the monarchy in Britain, is they find it hard to understand why New Zealand has a British monarchy," said Savage (who has one name), the chair of the New Zealand Republic group. "British people understood, even before Brexit, that New Zealand and Australia would one day become republics with their own heads of state."

Monarchists, on the other hand, don't see the irony in Britain rejecting Brussels while keeping its own colonies under thumb, and believe it's much ado about nothing.

"The traction that's been gained over this is merely a beat-up and it will soon die down," said Philip Benwell, the national chair of the Australian Monarchists' League.