Queen Becca of Oz

Preface 

The author had made a considerable effort to make this story realistic. The von Hoensbroecks are a real German noble family. They are in the line of succession to the Australian and British thrones. There is a real sept or branch of the O'Sullivan clan who own a chateau in France. Opinion polls have found that a large minority of Australians support having a resident Australian monarch. 

Chapter 1 

Becca von Hoensbroeck lives in an apartment high in a tower block in a low-income suburb of Sydney. She lives with her single mother Sophia and her younger sister Lisa. The family descends from King George III of the United Kingdom, and they are very distantly in the line of succession to the British throne, and the thrones of the other Commonwealth realms, including Australia. She is fifteen years old, and attends St. James's School in another suburb. Her mother has been divorced from her father for several years. Her father now lives on the other side of Sydney. Her mother works as a caretaker in a local factory, and is of working class British ancestry. The von Hoensbroecks descend from the Counts von Hoensbroeck, who were from Prussia in Germany. They were from what would later become East Germany and the Communist government confiscated all their possessions, forcing them to settle with relatives in West Germany and later to emigrate to Australia. The senior branch of the family still lives in Germany, but have not been given back their former lands. 

Chapter 2  

Becca is in school at her Civics class. Miss Ryan is their teacher. "Alright everyone, settle down. Today you're going to be learning about the upcoming referendum on the monarchy in Australia. So the referendum is in six months time. Now what makes this referendum different from the last one is that the model of republic on offer is for having an elected president rather than a president appointed by parliament. It is also different because it will include the option of having a monarch, that's a king or queen, who would permanently live in Australia, and would not be represented by a governor general. The other option, of course, is to maintain the current arrangement of sharing a monarch with the United Kingdom, who would continue to be represented by a governor general in Australia.* When Becca heard her teacher telling the class about the new option of Australia having its own resident monarch, she was amazed. She was aware of her family background, and the fact that she was distantly in line to the British and Australian thrones as a descendant of King George III, but she did not want to tell this to anyone but her closest friends in case they would not believe her. Her closest friends are Meghan, Phoebe and Sandra. They have a lot in common. They are all lively and vivacious girls with little interest in school. On their way back from school, she and her friends stop at a quiet place to smoke. They are all aware that smoking is illegal for them as they are under eighteen. "Guys, I have a secret to tell you", said Becca. "Do you remember today in Civics, Miss Ryan was telling us about the monarchy referendum, and she was talking about the new option of having a resident monarch of Australia? Well, you guys probably won/t believe this but I am actually in the line of succession to the Australian throne." "Wow. Are you serious?" said Phoebe. "That is so cool." said Meghan. "Hey, what if you were selected to be Queen of Oz?", said Sandra. "What would you do?" "Well, the first thing I would do is that I would make all of you guys Duchesses!", replied Becca. 

Chapter 3 

It is almost six months later and the referendum is scheduled for next week. It is a sad time for the von Hoensbroeck family, as Becca has now been placed into a youth detention centre. She had been engaging in a lot of illegal activities recently. It was her friend2 Sandra who had mostly been responsible for leading her into crime, but she knew that she was not forced into these activities either. Her particular weakness was designer clothing. With her expensive tastes and love of style, she found it almost impossible to resist her first theft. After that, there was no going back until she and Sandra were sentence to six months at the centre . Today is a relatively happy day for Becca, as her mother and sister are visiting. "The monarchy referendum is next week. " said her mother. "I wonder will the option of having a resident monarch win." said Becca. "Well, some recent opinion polls have it it as the most popular option, so you never know", replied her mother. "Well, even if it does win, I don't suppose there's much chance of any of us being made resident monarch, being so far down the line of succession, with over a thousand people ahead of us", reasoned Becca "I bet you'd find living in Government House in Canberra a welcome change from this horrible place." "I suppose so. If I could be Queen Becca of Oz it would be so cool!" A week later, Becca's mother and sister are watching a news report about the aftermath of the referendum on television. The reporter is Cathy Plunkett. "In the aftermath of this historic victory for those who want a resident Australian monarch, the Prime Minister has said that it is too early to say who will be the first resident monarch of Australia, but that negotiations with members of the Royal Family who are not expected to become monarch of the United Kingdom are underway. He said that there would eventually be a royal election, where members of the public would be able to choose which person they want to be monarch out of a list of candidates who must be in the line of succession to the throne, which in its entirety runs to thousands of people. He said that he would prefer the first resident monarch to be a resident Australian citizen, and so he will commission genealogists to examine the full line of succession to find out if there are any Australians in line to the throne. If any Australians are discovered, then special consideration would be given to them for the role of first resident monarch of Australia. In the meantime Australia will continue to share a monarch with the United Kingdom". Lisa turned to her mother. "It's starting to look like one of us could be the next monarch of Australia". "Who knows?, Darling, who knows?", answered her mother. Sophia decided to phone Becca at the detention centre and updated her on the situation. Becca was delighted that her prospects of becoming a queen were now more realistic, but her mother cautioned her that being a monarch may not be as nice as she thinks. In particular, she stressed the potential excess media attention and invasion of privacy it may include. But Becca was unswayed. Anything seemed better to her than her present situation in a youth detention centre. Besides, she thought that she would actually enjoy the media attention.