“Look, Tony, what are the odds of a Prime Minister drowning or being taken by a shark?”
– Harold Holt, to his press secretary Tony Eggelton, in 1967.
When a young Harold Holt was seventeen, he decided that, one day, he would be the Prime Minister. At first glance, this seemed a pipe dream: Holt was a bright and talented student to be sure, but he came from very plain stock. His father had been a school teacher, his mother a homemaker, and his childhood had been spent moving from house to house, staying with various relatives while his parents’ mariage steadily unravelled. However, a career in politics wasn’t as unusual as it seemed at first blush; his grandfather, whom he was very close to, had twice been elected mayor of Wallendbeen and Holt had been interested in politics from a very young age. He honed the skills necessary for a career in the cut and thrust of national politics while at university, studying law and representing the University of Melbourne on the inter-university debate team; he graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1930.
He rode out the hard years of the Great Depression and first entered politics in 1933 and stood for election for the first time in 1934. His first two attempts at election were unsuccessful, but in 1935 he succeeded and became the youngest minister in the Australian parliament: he was twenty-seven years old. For the next thirty-one years, he would occupy a variety of roles, both in government and opposition, with only a short break to serve briefly in the Australian Imperial Force (predecessor to the Australian Defence Force) during the second world war. He never lost the dream he’d first had at seventeen and continued to work his way up to being Prime Minister.
In 1966, it happened.
Prime Minister Harold Holt (right) and his deputy William McMahon (left) after being sworn in to their respective roles on 26 January 1966. Photo: The Australian Archives.
In 1967, it would end in an astonishing, heart-breaking tragedy.
This is the most poignant detail of Harold Holt’s story to me: he spent more than thirty years working hard to achieve something which, for many of us, is a fleeting fantasy (if that!). He was certainly not perfect, but when looking at his political career it is impossible not to note his honesty on the way to the top. He cultivated relationships within parliament, but avoided much of the ruthless backstabbing and favour-currying that often accompanies such ambition. It is not an exaggeration to say that, for much of his life, politics was his wife, mother and mistress.
And when he wasn’t in Canberra, he was in the ocean.
Harold Holt out spear fishing. Photo: The Royal Australian Archives.
Harold Holt loved the sea.
He had always been a very active man and enjoyed swimming, but once he was introduced to spear-fishing in 1954 it became his favourite leisure activity. His son Sam Holt recalled to reporters in 2007 that Harold Holt “had [a] habit, he would have his diving jacket with the zipper [open] and he would put fish in and they would be bleeding and still half alive and zip it up again and go on to get another fish.” Frankly, if Harold Holt was in the habit of doing this then I’m absolutely astonished he didn’t have an encounter with a shark! It would appear Sam Holt might share my shock, because he commented later in the same article that “you wouldn’t want too many white pointers [great white sharks] around.”
Prior to his disappearance, he had two close calls in the water, disturbingly, both happened just months before he vanished in the surf off Cheviot Beach. In May 1967 his snorkel leaked and he had to signal for help. He was pulled onto a boat by his companions where he then turned purple and vomited sea water. The second incident was in August 1967, where he had to abandon the pursuit of a large trout, after suffering extreme shortness of breath. In the days leading up to his disappearance, he had been advised by his doctor to take it easy and cut back on his favourite pastimes: swimming and tennis, which he declined to do, and he instead continued to enjoy physical activity. His press secretary, Tony Eggleton, was another who encouraged Holt to take it easy, especially in the water, and was told by Holt that the chances of the Prime Minister drowning or being taken by a shark were very slim. While this was true (with his chances of being taken by a shark significantly less than his chances of drowning), I think it shows an edge of recklessness to Holt. We’re all guilty, at some point, of believing “that will never happen to me!” and I think Holt was feeling that when it came to the water at this time. He was a good swimmer, he loved fishing, and the ocean brought him a lot of joy. Was he going to drown? No, never!
Cheviot Beach
Cheviot Beach in 2022. Photo by author.
The beach in question takes its name from the SS Cheviot, which was wrecked there in 1887. 35 people lost their lives in the disaster, after one of the propellers became disabled and high winds blew the ship into the rocks the area was known for. Over the decades, the wreck attracted many curious divers, including Harold Holt, who had salvaged a porthole from it in the years before his death. The beach was also one of his favourite spots to go spear-fishing, and he certainly wasn’t the first or last Victorian to ignore the fact that the beach itself was (and still is!) off limits to the public; the photo above was taken from a viewing platform. This is not just because of the hazardous conditions, but because of ongoing military activity in the area.
Point Nepean, the area around Cheviot Beach, was used as a coastal defence battery from the 1880s until 1945, and was still part of a closed military installation (specifically an officer training school) when Harold Holt and his friends were there in 1967. When I visited the memorial lookout at Point Nepean in late 2022, the entire beach area was fenced off with signs every few metres warning of unexploded ordnance. It is considered “extremely hazardous” by Life Saving Victoria and swimming is banned there. This was also the case in Harold Holt’s time, but who needs rules when you’re the Prime Minister?
As it happened, had Holt followed the rules that day, tragedy would have been prevented and he would have been remembered as a Prime Minister who began to steer Australia towards modernisation, rather than the Prime Minister who vanished without a trace in the surf.
What Happened to Harold Holt?
There are literally dozens of theories about what happened that terrible day at Cheviot Beach. I go into more detail on my podcast, but I’ve included a brief summary of the five most popular theories below, and why they are either highly unlikely or completely impossible.
5. Harold Holt was abducted by aliens.
No.
4. Harold Holt was assassinated.
There are two versions of this story, both involving the secret administration of a nerve agent to the Prime Minister before he went swimming, which incapacitated him in the water, leading to his death. In one version, Viet Cong agents in Australia assassinated Holt to try and demoralise Australia and make them withdraw from Vietnam, while in the other version, the CIA murders Holt, because they are afraid he will pull Australian troops out of Vietnam. Neither of these theories hold water (no pun intended!) on close examination.
The Viet Cong didn’t have the kind of intelligence apparatus in Australia required to have assassinated the Prime Minister, and they wouldn’t have needed to. Despite the shameless propaganda being put out by Australia, the USA and others, it was painfully apparent that the west was losing the Vietnam War. The Viet Cong probably wouldn’t have done it if they could – it would have been a waste of time and resources and would likely have resulted in more Australians getting behind the war.
As for the CIA theory, it is almost impossible for a public figure to die in this era without someone pointing the finger at the CIA. Given the CIA’s actions throughout the mid-twentieth century, this is not an unreasonable assumption (the CIA was killing heads of state and destabilising governments left, right and centre at this time!) but they would have had no interest in murdering Holt. He was incredibly supportive of the Vietnam war, tripled the number of Australian troops on the ground there, and continued to enforce conscription in spite of mounting public opposition! The CIA would have been doing a disservice to their own government’s aims in Vietnam by murdering him, which is why they didn’t do it.
3. Harold Holt committed suicide.
This was commonly speculated in the aftermath of Holt’s death. Proponents of this idea claim that Holt was depressed and under extreme pressure, was worried about the ascension of his rival Gough Whitlam in the Labor Party, and felt his political career was in jeopardy. However, this theory ignores Holt’s long experience in politics, the fact that he had been in opposition before, his general popularity in his party, and his recent election success. He was under no more pressure than he had ever been as Prime Minister, and was (at the time of his death) planning sweeping changes to the cabinet and Australia’s foreign policy. As his good friend and liberal party colleague Malcolm Fraser said in a 2007 interview “if somebody is planning to jump off a cliff, they are not at the same time planning to have a major cabinet review of the direction that Australia’s taking.” Holt’s press secretary, Tony Eggleton, spoke to Holt the day before his disappearance and denied that he sounded depressed, worried and suicidal, and those closest to Holt, his family and friends, dismiss the idea entirely. They say Harold Holt was excited about the future and had big plans for 1968, none of which involved drowning himself.
With this in mind, I believe it is extremely unlikely that Harold Holt committed suicide. I don’t want to say it’s impossible, given nobody but Mr. Holt was in his head that day and could say with certainty, but he exhibited none of the signs commonly seen in somebody planning to kill themselves. I think it’s also significant that he initially went to the beach, in the company of his mistress and some good friends, I might add, to see solo circumnavigator Alec Rose pass by. He decided to go swimming on the spur of the moment at a beach he knew very well. I won’t say suicide is impossible, but I do believe it is incredibly unlikely.
2. Harold Holt faked his own death to run away with a lover.
Harold Holt was an infamous ladies man and his widow claimed he was having affairs left, right and centre throughout their marriage. His biographer Tom Frame puts it more delicately, saying that “I have not included the names of women with whom Holt allegedly had a sexual relationship because I was unable to confirm or deny that most of these relationships took place.” One of the women on the beach that day with Harold Hold was his mistress Marjorie Gillespie, and he had a wife at home, which makes me wonder how this theory ever got any traction. Despite his enjoyment of illicit sex, Holt never showed any interest in leaving his wife or abandoning his family: he had three adult sons who he was very close to, enjoyed the company of his daughters-in-law and was devoted to his grandchildren. Given he was not shy about having affairs, it is utterly implausible that he would have gone to such lengths to conceal one and that he would have deserted the family he loved to be with another woman.
1. Harold Holt faked his own death to defect to China.
This theory has about as much plausibility as the idea that Harold Holt was abducted by aliens, however – given how it just refuses to go away and die – I made the decision to talk about it in-depth on my podcast. This idea first surfaced (I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist!) in 1983 with a book called “The Prime Minister Was a Spy”, in which author Anthony Grey claimed Holt had been a lifelong communist and a spy for the Chinese. According to Grey, Holt deliberately swam out in 1987 to reach a Chinese submarine which was stationed off Cheviot Beach, which whisked him safely off to China because ASIO had finally caught up with what he was doing. This claim is absurd for a number of reasons, all of which I discuss in detail on the podcast, but in summary, they are: 1) Cheviot beach was too shallow for a submarine to fully submerge, 2) Even if a submarine was there, the conditions would not have allowed it to operate safely, 3) The Chinese only had diesel/electric submarines at this time were, which needed to surface frequently and be refuelled every 45 – 60 days, and 4) A submarine could not have lingered off the Australian coast for ten years without eventually being seen. While Holt pursued closer ties with China (and other south east Asian countries) during his time as Prime Minister, there is no substance whatsoever to the claims he was a secret communist.
What really happened to Harold Holt?
In 2005, Victorian coroner Graeme Johnstone handed down the following verdict:
“Mr. Holt drowned after he went swimming in the surf off Cheviot Beach on December 17, 1967.”1
The corner further went on to say that “there [was] nothing of any significance in the material gathered…that would indicate that anything other than drowning occurred.” The reason this inquest took place almost forty years after Holt’s death was that The Coroner’s Act of 1958, which had been in force at the time Harold Holt disappeared, did not allow the coroner to conduct an investigation into a death where a body wasn’t present. This act was replaced with updated legislation in 1985, which allowed the coroner to investigate deaths where a body had not been recovered. Harold Holt’s death was one of more than eighty historic suspected drownings where a body had not been recovered to be investigated by the Victorian coroner under the new legislation.
Interestingly, Coroner Johnstone also criticised the government of 1968 in his report, saying they should have held a parliamentary inquiry into Holt’s death. While his family didn’t want one, the corner found that holding an inquiry at the time might have prevented some of the most absurd conspiracy theories from taking root. The police investigation held at the time was comprehensive and thorough, and this material would have been among that which would have been examined at the public inquiry. According to the coroner, making it publicly available would have filled some of the gaps in the public’s knowledge about what occurred on the beach that day.
Personally, I am skeptical about what, if any, affect a public inquiry would have had on the conspiracy theories. While an inquiry in 1968 that found Holt drowned, as he obviously did, might have stopped speculation of suicide, anyone who believed Holt was assassinated by the CIA or picked up by a Chinese submarine was not going to be deterred from their belief by an inquiry verdict. As is the nature of conspiracy theorists, they dismiss any fact which they can’t fit into their narrative, and explain away holes in their ideas with talk of cover-ups and government manipulation. I am not saying that cover-ups never occur, we know they do, but there was nothing to cover-up about Harold Holt’s death. The only mildly illegal thing he’d done was go down to Cheviot Beach, which was part of a closed military installation. Not a good choice on his part, but certainly not something the Australian government would have wanted to cover up, and not something they could have covered up either: that Cheviot Beach was closed was public knowledge.
Rest In Peace
Harold Holt was a good politician, who was leading Australia towards the values that would shape us in the twenty-first century. His death in 1967 shook the country and, despite the successes he had during his short stint in office, completely overshadowed his legacy.
It’s a sad fate, and I think it is important for all of us to remember that Mr. Holt was so much more than the day he went swimming and never came back.
Harold Holt’s memorial stone in the Melbourne General Cemetery. It is also the final resting place of his widow, Zara Bates (Holt). Photo by author.
- ‘Final verdict on Holt disappearance’, The Age, 2 Sep 2005, https://www.theage.com.au/national/final-verdict-on-holt-disappearance-20050902-ge0sxy.html, (accessed 19/04/2023) ↩︎
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