Who Would be King?

I am the first to admit I do not have an answer to the questions raised in this post. Nor am I the person who discovered the information.

It was brought to my attention by a subscriber and I have to say it raises a number of intriguing questions.

This is the curious case of Pecker Maroo.

Here's what we can establish from public records.

Pecker Maroo started corporate life as G. Loukas (Garage) & Co Pty Ltd on 2 November 1967. The company changed its name to Pecker Maroo Pty Ltd on 9 July 1985.

The Australian Company Number (ACN) is 000 576 492 and the ABN is 93 000 576 492. According to ASIC records the business seems primarily based in the State of New South Wales .

That's all pretty straightforward stuff, until you get to the list of 52 registered business names linked to this company. Most were registered in July last year.

These include:

The Australian Labor Party, Office of Stamp Duty, The Liberal Party of Australia, Office of Australian Taxation, Australian Prudential Regulation Office, Land Titles Office Australia, NSW Office of Fines and Penalties, Births, Deaths & Marriages Office, NSW Office of State Revenue, NSW Revenue Office, King of Australia and Queen of Australia

Here are some registration extracts.

Why anyone would seek to register such an array of authoritative sounding business names piqued my interest.

Combing through ASIC records it is apparent that many of these business names were cancelled within weeks of being registered. I presume authorities twigged that these business names were likely to cause confusion for consumers which could allow deceptive activities to take place.

There is no suggestion that was the intent of such a broad array of business interests by Pecker Maroo but I can certainly understand why authorities may have had concerns.

One of those cancelled was Queen of Australia.

This is entirely appropriate but I am left incredulous that the Queen of Australia registration was cancelled but the King of Australia is still an allowable Australian business name.

Without wishing ill upon Her Majesty, surely even a government agency would be aware that the next in line to the throne is a man. Upon his Coronation he will become the King of Australia.

Until then, I guess Pecker Maroo can have that title.