Surrounded by paintings of lush rainforests and waterfalls, Darren Bergwerf lays out his utopian vision.
He tells his Facebook followers in a March 2023 post that his organisation – My Place Australia – is setting up community groups all around Australia, with their own wellness and health hubs, farming and produce networks and council advocacy groups.
Instead of fighting the system, Bergwerf says, they will join it. The groups will keep watch at council meetings, write their own constitution and build a parallel system.
From its Melbourne headquarters, My Place has created about 180 Facebook groups, including about 50 for Queensland communities, promoting sovereign citizen messaging and conspiracy theories about 5G, chemtrails, fluoride, wind turbines and smart cities.
In one Queensland Facebook group, Bergwerf further details his plan:
We are transitioning … into our own realms of self governance and building. Eventually that will be a private members association that will trade and barter our services and labour to support each other. We will be SELF GOVERNED.
Last month’s Queensland local elections may not have offered an obvious path to that goal but Guardian Australia has identified My Place groups campaigning for various candidates. One explicitly shared some of the beliefs laid out by Bergwerf while others have distanced themselves from the controversial movement.
Bergwerf is an admin of most of the Queensland Facebook groups, which commonly operate as loose collectives of individuals with similar views on certain issues. My Place charges users $60 a year for a separate community hub, which has a smaller membership.
On the Sunshine Coast, Camillo Primavera ran an unsuccessful bid for division 10.
In Facebook posts Primavera – who attracted headlines for interrupting councillors with questions from the gallery in 2023 – echoes Bergwerf, laying out his vision to establish a “My Place Sunshine Coast Council” running parallel to the actual council.
Primavera tells Guardian Australia that members of the local My Place group assisted his campaign by dropping flyers in letterboxes and handing out how-to-vote cards on polling day.
He confirms that he shares My Place’s beliefs about sovereignty, 5G and fluoride but rejects the notion that the group is made up of conspiracy theorists.
“We are not a bunch of conspiracy theorists, as some media portray. We are about community and not harm,” he says. “Conspiracy = ‘A secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful’.”
He says there needs to be “some form of transparency and accountability in the council”.
In Gympie several members and an admin of the My Place local group have expressed support for Allona Lahn, who won a seat on the council. Lahn is a member of the Facebook group and has spoken at My Place events.
Lahn tells Guardian Australia she is part of many Facebook community groups: “My Place Gympie is one of those.”
She says she does not know Bergwerf personally and is “not overly active in the group”, apart from sharing posts about the community markets she organises.
“I don’t know Darren, have never met or spoken with him nor know of his involvement or his views or past experiences in My Place. I am in the group because it’s one of many local community groups,” she says.
“I [was] standing for council because, I want a better, more cohesive, united community which includes talking and connecting with ALL demographics and people.”
She finds it “refreshing that some community groups show an interest in politics and actively share information about elections”.
“I am my own person and therefore sovereign, as is everyone,” she says.
“I don’t drink fluoride … I live off grid … [and] I am an active homeschooling mum. I am particularly concerned about the erosion of rights and choice and government control and overreach.”
After reports in local media, the admin of the My Place Gympie page said the group had not “endorsed” or “donated money” to any individual candidates.
In Facebook comments, the admin wrote: “Allona will be an incredible asset to Div 5 and if I lived there, she 100% would have my vote.”
Guardian Australia has previously reported that the local My Place group backed successful candidates in Townsville, including Troy Thompson for mayor and Kristian Price in division four.
Thompson thanked My Place Townsville for supporting his campaign. Messages reveal the group asked volunteers to support the independent candidates by attending polling booths, standing with signs, handing out how-to-vote cards, doing letterbox drops and acting as scrutineers to oversee the vote count.
In Bundaberg, two successful council candidates have been members of the city’s My Place Facebook group. The mayor-elect, Helen Blackburn, previously told a local newspaper she had been added to the group in 2022 by an existing member but had left immediately after learning of the group’s controversial views.
“Someone invited me to join the group and I obviously clicked ‘join’ ... I don’t receive any updates or posts from the group (that I can recall) and wouldn’t be able to tell you anything about them, their ethos or their members,” Blackburn was reported as saying.
“I’ve been invited to join many groups and pages, most times I decline, however, when this group presented as My Place Bundaberg I believe I thought that this would be a group of people who lived in and loved Bundaberg.
“I do not align or abide with any of their beliefs relating to councils or sovereign citizenship.”
Another former member, Deb Keslake, elected to the council for division three, has also posted on the My Place Australia group.
Both have posted or commented in their local My Place Facebook group as recently as 2023.
Keslake has commented on a post by another user that shows the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, speaking about the digital economy and digital IDs. In the post the user asks if Australia is “ready for full enslavement” and says: “REFUSE … DON’T COMPLY and WIN.”
In response Keslake writes: “How can people not see what is happening [sad face emoji].”
In response to questions on her Facebook page, Keslake says she has joined “many pages in an[d] around this area” and did not share any controversial views linked with the group.
“As the last paragraph [of the local paper’s report] states and I agree with – it is not suggested Ms Keslake share any of the controversial views that have been linked to My Place’s social pages,” she says.
Blackburn, a former councillor, made headlines in 2021 for telling anti-vax protesters in Bundaberg that “almost 700 people have died by taking this poison jab”.
Blackburn, Keslake and Bergwerf have not responded to Guardian Australia’s requests for comment.
The My Place group in Moreton Bay also says it has been “doing a lot of talking” with councillors about “chemtrails, fluoride and 5G”.
Josh Roose, a political sociologist at Deakin University, says My Place is a sovereign citizen group which believes governments are “illegitimate”.
My Place has rejected the term sovereign citizen, viewing it as an oxymoron.
“They … view elections as a convenient mechanism to gain real power where they otherwise have none,” Roose says.
In My Place’s home state of Victoria, candidates it backed failed to win seats at the 2022 state election.
Bergwerf ran for the federal seat of Dunkley in this year’s byelection but received only 3.92% of the vote.
Last year Yarra Ranges and Latrobe city councils were forced to move meetings online to avoid unruly and antisocial behaviour at public meetings that allegedly involved some members of My Place groups.
Roose says My Place and other anti-establishment and anti-government groups are “operating in fertile political terrain”.
