The tiny hamlet of Cowwarr is located downstream of heavily wooded country in the Victorian Alps, on the Thomson River, in the scenic farming region of East Gippsland, in the Australian state of Victoria. 

During winter the river is subject to regular violent flooding, carrying with it large amounts of bushland debris which is capable of causing serious damage to roads and other infrastructure located in the more settled downstream areas. 

The origins of the Independent State of Rainbow Creek can be traced to this fact, and specifically to 1938, when a low-level road bridge was first built across the Thomson at Cowwarr. The bridge was constructed too close to the winter high water level to allow for the free passage of river-borne debris, and was duly swept away during floods several times in subsequent years. 

When a violent flood hit the Thomson in June 1952, the outcome was acutely devastating to a number of Cowwarr farmers whose properties were located close by. This flood carried a huge amount of debris, and upon reaching Cowwarr and finding nowhere else to go, simply carved a new course for itself and the river around the edge of the bridge – straight through a number of adjacent farming properties. 

Remedial action was taken to block the newly formed “Rainbow Creek”, but these efforts were in vain, as subsequent flooding quickly enlarged the creek to the size of several fooball fields at the expense of the affected farmers’ lands. 

Deciding to make the best of a bad situation the farmers began using water from the creek to irrigate their properties. Local and state authorities responded by slapping additional levies on them. The farmers ended up having to pay one set of levies to the local council for land which was now underwater, because their title deeds did not show the existence of the creek, a second levy to the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission (SRWSC) for using creek waters for irrigation purposes, and a final levy to the Thomson River Improvement Trust which was supposed to prevent further erosion by the creek - which nonetheless continued to grow inexorably with each new flood. 

To make matters worse the SRWSC constructed a weir across the river downstream of the bridge in 1954. This had the effect of funnelling significantly higher volumes of floodwater directly into the Rainbow Creek. 

By the late 1970's the creek was 8 metres deep and over 50 metres wide, and farmers had to privately fund the construction of bridges to cross from one part of their properties to the other - all of which were washed away, along with crops, stock, and equipment by particularly severe flooding in 1978. The farmers of Cowwarr had always been clear in their minds that government incompetence over nearly three decades – in the shape of the bridge and the weir – was clearly to blame for their woes – but when any form of compensation for loss of land, productivity and private infrastructure was denied them outright by the State Government in 1978 they finally decided that more serious action was warranted.   

Governor Thomas Barnes (1986 photograph)

One of the worst affected properties was Yammacoona, located directly below the weir, and owned by Thomas Barnes since 1970. Barnes was a retired UK and Victorian police officer who had settled in the town some time before. He was a man of feisty temperament with little patience for the slow-turning wheels of government bureaucracy and a flair for self publicity – as subsequent events would show. 

In an attempt to gain public sympathy Barnes and around thirty other farmers decided to declare war on the state of Victoria. Signed on 19th December, 1978, the Declaration was served with all due pomp to a bemused Governor in Melbourne on 16^th January, 1979. Barnes got the media attention he wanted and the struggle for compensation began in earnest. 

Some legal scuffling between Barnes and the SRWSC followed in the Victorian courts, during which minor points were won and lost on both sides, and a government offer of loans (but not compensation) was rejected. Barnes meanwhile was planning on a larger scale. Taking a leaf from the book of Prince Leonard from the Hutt River Province he sought legal advice, as a result of which on 23^rd July 1979 in an act of unilateral secession the Independent State of Rainbow Creek came into being. Barnes appointed himself Governor and together with Minister for Information George Downing, swore allegiance to Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom as his Head of State. His Secession document was lodged with the Victorian Governor, the Governor General of Australia, Buckingham Palace and the International Court in the Hague. 

Public attention was again focused on Cowwarr, and the existence of the State of Rainbow Creek ensured it stayed that way for a number of years, as Governor Barnes proceeded to issue a series of stamps, banknotes and other printed material - to promote his cause, or in support of local charitable causes - and generally to remain a thorn in the side of the SRWSC and the Victorian Government. 

Ill health eventually forced Governor Barnes to retire to the sunnier (and presumably flood-free) climes of Queensland in the mid 1980s, from where he has since published several books of local history and poetry.  

The issues that led to the secession of the Independent State of Rainbow Creek remain unresolved to the present day.