Aussie teen declares himself president—could you do the same if given unclaimed land?

A teenager from Melbourne stumbled across a forgotten patch of land in Europe and decided to turn it into a country.

Now, six years later, that wild idea has snowballed into a full-blown nation-building experiment—complete with citizens, passports, and political drama.

But the ‘president’ of this self-declared republic now governs from exile, banned for life from ever setting foot on his own territory.

When Daniel Jackson first spotted an unclaimed strip of land along the Danube River at age 14, he never imagined it would one day spark international controversy.

Born on 7 December 2004 in Upper Ferntree Gully, the Melbourne schoolboy was studying at Waverley Christian College when he and his friends discovered something unusual: a 125-acre forested zone known as ‘Pocket-3’, caught between Croatia and Serbia.

Neither country wanted to claim it due to a long-running border dispute, leaving the territory legally terra nullius.

On 30 May 2019, Jackson declared the creation of the Free Republic of Verdis.

The micronation quickly developed its own flag, constitution, and government.

By the time he turned 20, Jackson had nearly 15,000 citizenship applications, with 400 people receiving passports and ID cards.

Some even managed to use these documents abroad, though Jackson admitted they were not legally valid.

Croatian authorities soon cracked down.

On 11 October 2023, Verdis attempted to establish a permanent settlement, but the following day Croatian police stormed the area, detained settlers—including journalists—and deported Jackson.

He was banned from Croatia for life.

‘They weren't able to give a reason… they said we were a threat to homeland security,’ he said.

Now living in Dover, England, Jackson works as a freelance game developer by day and a head of state by night.

His modest home office doubles as a ‘government in exile,’ with flags and banners behind him during official video calls.

The Free Republic of Verdis lists English, Croatian, and Serbian as its official languages and uses the Euro as its currency.

‘There are instances of successful crossings but it's not something that we will promote unless that country recognizes our documents officially,’ Jackson chuckled.

Despite the setbacks, Verdis has continued to attract attention and support.

A crypto community recently raised more than $37,000 USD through an unaffiliated coin called $VERDIS.

As Verdis approaches the two-year anniversary of the October 2023 deportations, Jackson is organising a protest outside the Croatian embassy in London on 6 September 2025.

Jackson has also taken part in humanitarian trips to Ukraine, alongside other Verdisian volunteers.

He insists the republic stands for democracy, environmental protection, reconciliation between ethnic groups, and modernisation.

Jackson often points to Liberland, another micronation created on disputed land between Croatia and Serbia in 2015.

But unlike Liberland, which is largely symbolic, Jackson insists Verdis is meant to become a functioning settlement.

‘We have the opportunity to test, for example, new systems of governance,’ he said.

He has promised that if Verdis succeeds, he will step down and call democratic elections.

‘It is a matter of when, not if, we get back on the land,’ he added.

What do you think about Daniel Jackson's bold experiment—could a micronation like Verdis ever become a real country?