The seven-month manhunt for fugitive and self-proclaimed sovereign citizen Dezi Freeman finally came to an end when he was shot dead by police at a remote campsite in northeast Victoria.
The property where he was found is known as Tholo Farm, which on Monday was listed on Google with the slogan boasting: ‘Cookers Welcome’.
Although the landowner was none the wiser about its origins, the unusual phrase has left Australians wondering what the term cooker actually means.
‘Cooker’ is an Australianism for a conspiracy theorist, according to Associate Professor Amanda Laugesen from the Australian National Dictionary Centre, which primarily focuses on recording uniquely Aussie words.
While it is not officially in the dictionary yet because it is of ‘fairly recent vintage’, she said they have a draft entry labelled ‘derogatory’.
‘At the moment, our current definition is a person involved in protests against vaccine mandates, lockdowns and a range of other issues perceived to be infringing on personal freedom; a conspiracy theorist,’ she told the Daily Mail.
Assoc Prof Laugesen said the centre picked up on the word ‘cooker’ during Covid-19 lockdowns and debates over vaccine mandates.
‘We saw the protests around during that period and identified that it was an Australianism,’ she said.
Fugitive Dezi Freeman (pictured) was shot dead at a remote campsite in northeast Victoria seven months after he killed two police constables
The property where he was found is known as Tholo Farm, which on Monday was listed on Google with the slogan boasting: ‘Cookers Welcome’
‘Then I think we’ve seen it more recently in connection with sovereign citizens – obviously, the Dezi Freeman story in recent months.
‘But even before that, we were starting to see it become attached more to a broader discussion around sovereign citizens, rather than the vaccine mandates.’
However, while the centre classified the term as derogatory, some experts suggest it has been reclaimed by groups, including Macquarie University’s Professor Julian Droogan, whose research focuses on online extremism and disinformation.
‘It’s just been claimed, particularly the sovereign citizen movement, who are very proud of their anti-establishment and antisocial subculture, and of being considered outside the norm – somewhat ‘cooked’,’ he said.
‘You get overlaps of people who are sovereign citizens, but they might be interacting with broader movements, often online, that are maybe far-right extremists.
‘In some cases, they might be butting up against movements that are even white nationalists.
‘That’s not to say all sovereign citizens are, far right extremists or neo-Nazis, but their movement is often anti-government and conspiratorial.’
He said the beliefs can often emerge in online subcultures through forums like Reddit or on digital message boards like Telegram.
Experts like Macquarie University’s Professor Julian Droogan (pictured) said the word ‘cooker’ comes from the idea that a conspiracy theorist is ‘cooked’
How do you spot a cooker?
Not only would someone who is a ‘cooker’ discuss their opposition to vaccine mandates, they would also have several anti-establishment beliefs, Professor Droogan said.
He said the sovereign citizen movement began as a ‘tax grift’, in which people sold books claiming they had tips on ‘how to get out of paying taxes’ because ‘national governments don’t have any sovereignty over you’.
This led to suggestions about the ‘right words to say, the right levers to pull, hence the conspiracy theories’.
‘Sovereign citizens will be saying things like, “Why does the government have a monopoly of force? Why does the government dictate to us to pay taxes or obey laws?”‘ Professor Droogan added.
‘They’re going back to the very basics of political philosophy, such as “why do we have governments? Why are we beholden to them?” and arguing there is none.
‘They (claim) they have the secret codes, the secret language, the secret information that can help one get out from under the thumb of the government.
‘So if you’re having a dinner party with someone who’s a sovereign citizen or a cooker, it’s going to be a pretty interesting conversation.’
Professor Droogan said Freeman (pictured) was an example of a sovereign citizen who had been radicalised
How does Dezi Freeman fit into this?
Victoria’s network of sovereign citizens revered Freeman as a modern-day Ned Kelly, with some predicting in the months-long hunt for him that he would go down in a blaze of gunfire.
‘He’s an example of a sovereign citizen for whom you could use the word radicalised,’ Professor Droogan said.
‘In his case, he’s not just claiming the government doesn’t have sovereignty over him, he’s actually being antagonistic towards law enforcement.
‘That’s always the danger with sovereign citizens: there can be an escalation.
‘It doesn’t happen all the time, but Dezi Freeman is an example of one of those radicalised sovereign citizens where it did escalate to a violent confrontation.’
Freeman was shot dead by police following a three-hour standoff at the base of Mount Porcupine, near Thologolong, close to the New South Wales border.
He was finally tracked down camping in a converted shipping container in the remote compound seven months after he gunned down Sen Const Vadim De Waart-Hottart and Det Leading Sen Const Neal Thompson at his home in Porepunkah, 180km away.
Freeman subscribed to the sovereign citizen movement’s ideology and was receiving Centrelink benefits before the shooting.
Adopters of this worldview usually believe the government is illegitimate and that the law does not apply to them.
Footage illegally filmed and published online from a court appearance of Freeman in Wangaratta in November 2024 showed him attempting to arrest the magistrate and police officers.
The hearing was one of several disruptive court appearances in which Freeman demonstrated his contempt for the legal system.
Are cookers a risk to society?
Professor Droogan, who has studied a spectrum of conspiracy theories and extremism, said there are risks that people can get lulled into a false sense of security when discussing cookers.
‘Sometimes we laugh and roll our eyes,’ he said.
‘There’s been conspiracy theories for many years around things like ancient history and so on. You know, the aliens built the pyramids, and sometimes we see them as quite harmless, even fun.
‘They enchant our world, but drip by drip, they dissolve the networks of trust we have in society – trust in experts, trust in authority figures.
‘So you can laugh and say that the pyramids were built by aliens, or the cookers are half baked, and believe the government doesn’t have authority, but at the same time, there are real political consequences.
‘That’s when you reach a tipping point and your whole society begins not to believe in established narratives or in institutions or in experts.’
