Jon English: The Strange Story Of The Aussie National Anthem You’ve Never Heard Of

Grand Final Day, 1984. As Slim Dusty belts out the national anthem at the MCG before Essendon take on their ’80s archrivals Hawthorn, Jon English’s guitarist, Keith “Stretch” Kerwin, is back in his hotel room writing a new national anthem.

“Jon and the Fossies [English’s band, the Foster Brothers] always had a big weekend at this time,” Kerwin explains. “We usually played a very late gig on the Friday night, 3 am finish, then a very early gig Saturday morning at the Fitzroy Lions champagne breakfast, 6 am start. Consequently, we didn’t sleep.

“Then, after the breakfast, stagger off, half tanked, to the Grand Final as guests of the club.”

But on this one day in September, Kerwin – a Queenslander who prefers rugby – decided to give his ticket to a member of the crew and head back to the hotel for some sleep. But instead of going to bed, he picked up his guitar, and his mind wandered back to a strange conversation the band had at The Bert Newton Show a few months before.

At the Channel Nine studios in Melbourne, the musicians met Prince Leonard, the self-styled prince of the Hutt River Province, Australia’s most famous “micronation”.

“Have you got a national anthem?” Jon English asked the prince.

“No,” he replied, “I’ve never really thought about it, to be honest.”

“Oh well, then, why don’t we write you one, and you can make us all knights?”

“That sounds like a great idea.”

The Hutt River Province was formed in 1970 when the WA government introduced new quotas telling farmers how much wheat they could grow. Leonard Casley believed the new rules made his farm unviable, so he came up with a radical idea – seceding from Australia and starting his own nation.

Leonard became Prince Leonard, his wife became Princess Shirley, and the Hutt River Province – nearly 600km north of Perth – became a tourist attraction, with visitors crossing the border to get their passports stamped at the capital city, Nain.

They installed a ministry of foreign affairs, a diplomatic security force, and a non-combative defence force, and they created their own flag, stamps, and currency.

In 1977, when the Australian Tax Office said Prince Leonard owed them money, he was so angry that he declared war on Australia. In a telegram to the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, he stated: “It is my official responsibility to declare that a state of war now exists between our respective countries, and diplomatic relations are at this time severed.”

Two days later, Prince Leonard declared the conflict over, and Australia was obliged to recognise Hutt River’s sovereignty as it was undefeated in war.

The principality had everything it needed – apart from a national anthem.

Enter Keith Kerwin.

Strumming his guitar in his hotel room – as the Bombers powered to their 13th premiership, coming back from 23 points down at three-quarter time to win by four goals – Kerwin came up with the melody for the Hutt River anthem.

Then he moved on to the words. “Where are we again?” he asked himself.

“We’re halfway up the coast of WA, pretty rugged …”

Kerwin started singing: “It’s a harsh land, but it’s our land.”

His original line for the chorus was: “Leonard is the Prince of the Hutt River Province”, but he changed it to “God bless the Prince”, “thinking it was a bit more anthem-ish”.

“Basically, the rest just flowed like it was already written – it just had to be put on paper.”

That night, before yet another gig, Kerwin told Jon and the band: “Hey guys, I’ve got an idea for that anthem thingy.” They responded enthusiastically, and soon after, the band recorded the song at a studio in Perth, with English on lead vocals, Kerwin on acoustic guitar and backing vocals, John Dallimore on guitar and backing vocals, John Coker on bass and backing vocals, Peter Deacon on piano and synth, and Greg Henson on drums.

“It’s a hard land, but it’s our own land,” English sang. “Built with love and dedication/ Self-assured is our small nation/ One man’s dream of independence/ God bless the Prince of the Hutt River Province/ God bless the man whose dream has come true/ God bless this land where dreams can come true.”

Four decades on, Jon English is still not in the ARIA Hall of Fame, but he was knighted – by Prince Leonard.

In fact, the Prince knighted every member of the band. He also issued an official decree from “the Government of the Principality of Hutt River”, apologising to Sir Keith.

“For many, many years, an injustice has been done to a great musician, that musician being guitarist, vocalist and composer Keith Kerwin, or as he should more correctly be called, Sir Keith Kerwin.

“The injustice being that, until recently, Sir Jon English has – incorrectly, as it turned out – been given the accolades and recognition for composing the principality’s national anthem when, in fact, it was Sir Keith, not Sir Jon, who wrote both the music and the lyrics to this wonderful and moving anthem.

“The principality wishes to correct this long-standing misunderstanding and apologise to Sir Keith for seemingly ignoring his great effort and attributing his work to another, something that should never occur and is a great insult. We are very thankful that Sir Keith understands how the error came to be.”

Prince Leonard changed the province’s name to the Principality of Hutt River in 2006.

Sadly, Sir Jon English died in 2016, aged 66. But his work lives on. In fact, Ambition Records have just released the box set Jon English – The Rock Show, where he tells the history of rock via two CDs and two DVDs.

English’s footy team, Fitzroy, no longer exists. They “merged” with the Brisbane Bears in 1996 to form the Brisbane Lions, who take on the Sydney Swans in this year’s Grand Final.

In 2017, 91-year-old Prince Leonard abdicated, with his youngest son, Prince Graeme, becoming the new monarch. Prince Leonard died two years later.

After 50 years, Hutt River again became part of Australia in 2020. 

With the Tax Office arguing that the principality owed nearly $3 million in back taxes, Prince Leonard’s children decided it was best to dissolve the principality and return to Australia. “No one wanted to undo what Dad did,” his daughter, Princess Sherryl, said. “But like a band, when the lead singer leaves, it never sounds the same.”

But Sir Keith remains rightly proud of his Hutt River national anthem. “We resisted the urge to stick a blazing heavy metal guitar solo in it,” he smiles. “Maybe if we do an updated version for the 40th anniversary?”