“Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt is missing”.
Those were the words that blared from television sets and radios across Australia on December 17, 1967, the day Holt walked into the waves on the beach near Melbourne and was never seen again.
The Australian leader was believed to have drowned, and a memorial service was held in his honor, attended by British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and US President Lyndon Johnson, among others.
But his body was never found, leading to a series of increasingly outlandish conspiracy theories, including a book that claimed he had been taken by a Chinese submarine.
Over fifty years after his disappearance, Holt’s long career as a progressive politician has been completely overshadowed by the mysterious cause of death.
“The conspiracy theories have become so well-known and almost become a part of Australian folk memory itself,” says Tom Frame, Holt biographer and head of research at the University of New South Wales.
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“I think none of us want our death to overshadow our life,” he adds.
Watch video: Full panic on board: – Our boat is sinking
“The first of Australia’s modern prime ministers”
Holt became prime minister in January 1966, just two years before he disappeared.
He had been a loyal minister under the country’s longest-serving leader, Sir Robert Menzies.
“He was a breath of fresh air,” says John Warhurst, professor emeritus of politics at the Australian National University.
– He was younger, he was known as a very stylish, progressive man. Seen as of today, he was the first of the modern Australian Prime Ministers.
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Despite his relatively short time as Prime Minister, Holt achieved a number of results, including moving Australia’s currency from pounds and pence to dollars and cents.
Another milestone in his time as leader was the historic referendum in 1967, which paved the way for Australian Indigenous people to finally be included in the country’s population.
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According to Frame, Holt was also one of the first politicians to work to end the “White Australia” policy, which severely restricted immigration from non-European countries, and to establish diplomatic contacts with the country’s Asian neighbours, according to CNN.
As Prime Minister, he developed a close personal friendship with then US President Lyndon Johnson, and during a visit to the White House, he declared that he was “totally on LBJ’s side” in the early stages of the Vietnam War.
– He wanted the US to get more involved in Asia, and because he had a good, personal relationship with Johnson, he tried to use that to persuade, encourage and entice the Americans to take part in Asia, says Frame.
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Harold Holt and Lyndon B. Johnson at a reception in 1966. Foto: Yoichi Okamoto / Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum
“Like my own trouser pocket”
The day Holt disappeared was a warm Sunday, perfect for a swim.
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Before lunch on 17 December 1967, Holt decided to go to the beach near the holiday home he owned in the town of Portsea.
– There was a circumnavigator who sailed into Melbourne, and they went to visit him. Holt was there with a friend and a couple of younger guests, says Frame.
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Holt is described as sociable, sporty and with an appetite for life. He enjoyed diving and spearfishing, although according to Frame he was not a very good swimmer.
But the prime minister was not in perfect health. He had just undergone a shoulder operation, and had recently been told by the doctor to “take it easy” after the operation.
– So he played tennis on Saturday and was near the water on Sunday, says Frame.
Witnesses on the beach told police that the tide was unusually high with a strong undercurrent that day. Some said it was the highest they had ever seen.
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Despite this, Holt began swimming further away from the beach, into deeper water, according to a 1968 police report.
Some of the last things Holt said to the group before entering the water were:
“I know this beach like the back of my hand.”
“One witness said that she had observed Holt continuously from the time he went into the waves, and she saw that the water suddenly became very turbulent around him and appeared to be boiling, and that these conditions appeared to ‘flood him'” , the report states.
“He was not seen again.”
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Harold Holt in 1966, out spearfishing near Portsea in Victoria. Foto: Australian News and Information Bureau via National Archives of Australia
Wild speculation
Australia was stunned by the news that their Prime Minister was missing.
– I think that after the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, most people thought that world leaders would have a security presence that would not be far away, and that would help him if he got into trouble, says Frame.
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Amateur detectives, police and even the Australian Army came to the beach in an attempt to find the missing leader, or at least his body.
At times up to 300 people participated in the search, but it was finally called off on 5 January.
No trace of Holt was ever found, the only thing left was a pile of clothes in the sand.
The disappearance made Holt’s death part of Australian folk memory and sparked a fierce debate.
Warhurst says that there was wild speculation in the media that Holt had committed suicide, that he was in despair over an allegedly difficult marriage or that he was exhausted from his job. In their report from 1968, the police concluded that this was highly unlikely.
Other theories had a more international touch.
– Some claimed that a foreign power was involved, that he had been picked up by a Russian or Chinese delegation and taken away against his will, says Warhurst.
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A book titled “The Prime Minister Was A Spy” claimed that Holt had been a Chinese spy and evacuated to a Chinese submarine at the end of his mission.
– None of them have any evidence whatsoever, they don’t hold water, they don’t make sense, says Frame.
– The simplest and most direct explanation is that he just drowned, and that people thought that ‘a prime minister can’t do that’, he continues.
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Search crews comb Cheviot Beach after Harold Holt’s disappearance, 17 December 1967. Foto: National Archives of Australia
Honored the Australian way
Holt’s disappearance sent the ruling Liberal Party into chaos, resulting in a succession of short-lived, ineffective leaders and ultimately the return of the Labor Party to government in 1972, after 23 years without government power.
According to Warhurst, the Liberal Party did not fully recover from Holt’s death until 1975, when later Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser took power.
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For Australians, Holt’s short time in government was overshadowed by the mystery surrounding his death. Frame says he wanted to write about Holt because he felt the leader had been forgotten by history.
Many years later, Australians honored their missing prime minister in a way that suited the country’s terse sense of humour.
Of named a swimming pool after him.
2023-12-25 07:28:28
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