'Governor' in court on gun charges
It is not too often a Governor appears in court - especially on a gun-running charge - but that is exactly what has happened in South Australia.
The case of Police versus His Excellency the Governor of Bumbunga was called on in the Port Pirie Courthouse this morning
Since 1976, Alex Brackstone has been the self-proclaimed Governor of Bumbunga, a province comprising a few hectares near Lochiel and the state’s Mid North.
He says that in 2010, illness forced him to store some rifles on his son’s property, in a safe inside a locked shipping container.
Now he has been charged with the equivalent of gun-running – supplying firearms to an unlicensed person.
That unlicensed person is his daughter-in-law, and now she has been charged too.
“Ah, it’s a ridiculous charge,” Governor Brackstone told 7News.
“I can’t see what all the hoo haa is.”
He claims police have ignored firearms laws.
“Under the Firearms Amendment Act, the Governor can make whatever arrangements he wants,” Mr Brackstone said.
“I issued a proclamation and I decreed myself firearms.”
Governor Brackstone and his daughter-in-law will now be subject to random police testing for gunshot residue, a part of the Government’s tough new anti-bikie laws, and it is a condition now placed on all new bail agreements for everyone who goes to court.
His Excellency says he has also asked the British Government for consular assistance.
