In December 1967, Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt vanished while swimming at Cheviot Beach in Victoria, and his body has never been found.
National Archives of AustraliaHarold Holt near the beach in 1967.
On Dec. 17, 1967, Australian prime minister Harold Holt met some friends at Cheviot Beach in Victoria, Australia. It was a hot day, and Holt decided to take a dip in the water. But to the horror of his friends on the shore, Holt suddenly disappeared beneath the “turbulent” waves.
Holt was never seen again.
In the years since, the circumstances of Holt’s disappearance have overshadowed the larger story of his life. They’ve also given rise to conspiracy theories, including that Holt was a spy, and that he was not drowned, but picked up by a Chinese submarine.
This is the full story of Harold Holt, from his rise in Australian politics, to his 1967 disappearance, to the conspiracy theories that emerged in aftermath.
The Path To Becoming Prime Minister
National Museum AustraliaHarold Edward Holt became Australia’s 17th prime minister in 1966, at the age of 57.
Born on August 5, 1908, Harold Edward Holt enjoyed political success from a young age. After studying law at University of Melbourne, Holt was elected to Australia’s federal parliament in 1935. At 26 years old, he was the youngest member of parliament that year, and held the seat of Fawkner, Victoria from 1937 to 1946, and Higgins, Victoria, from 1949 until 1966.
Along the way, Holt steadily climbed the rungs of Australia’s Liberal party. He became the deputy leader of the Liberal party in 1956, and, a decade later, became the 17th prime minister of Australia at the age of 57.
As prime minister, Holt’s performance was mixed. While he oversaw important changes like transitioning Australia from using pounds and pences to using dollars and cents, and made the government more inclusive for aboriginal people, his stance on the Vietnam War soured many Australians against him. Holt supported U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson, and promised Johnson that Australia would be “all the way with LBJ.”
Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and MuseumHarold Holt and Lyndon B. Johnson in October 1966.
But he was ultimately in office for just two years. And Harold Holt’s death in 1967 would come to overshadow his life and political accomplishments.
Harold Holt’s Disappearance At Cheviot Beach
According to reporting from the Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in 2020, Harold Holt enjoyed swimming and spearfishing, and was even known to practice holding his breath during parliamentary sessions in order to become a better scuba diver. So it made sense that, during the Christmas holidays, he’d head to the beach to relax and unwind.
National Archives of AustraliaHarold Holt liked to swim, spearfish, and scuba dive.
On Dec. 17, 1967, he went to Cheviot Beach in Victoria, Australia with a small group of people that included Marjorie Gillespie, a woman Holt was having an affair with. Though Holt was recovering from shoulder surgery, and had been told to take it easy, he was eager to get into the water.
Telling his companions that he knew the beach “like the back of my hand,” Holt dove into the surf.
However, the others found that the current — even in shallow water — was too strong. They stayed on the beach, and some time later, someone asked Gillespie if Holt always stayed in the water so long. Gillespie scanned the waves, and found that Holt had drifted far out to sea.
“This is when I was saying, ‘Come back, come back’. I was yelling. I knew he couldn’t hear me,” Gillespie recalled, according to ABC. “At that stage, he was trying to come back. [Then] the water seemed to boil into colossal waves where he was [and] he couldn’t come back… this colossal, boiling mess of water came and then there was nothing.”
Holt’s disappearance beneath the waves, Gillespie said, was “like a leaf being taken out. So quick and final.”
National Archives of AustraliaA search party on Cheviot Beach. Though Holt’s disappearance sparked one of the largest searches in Australian history, his body has never been found.
News of Harold Holt’s disappearance launched one of the largest searches in Australian history. The Victorian Police, the Royal Australian Air Force, and Navy Search and Rescue soon arrived on the scene, and two airlines volunteered the use of their airplanes to help. According to The Conversation, dozens of divers and hundreds of people searched for Holt, and sharks were even gutted to see if they’d consumed the prime minister.
But Holt was gone. Or was he?
The Conspiracy Theories Surrounding Harold Holt’s Disappearance
Two days after Harold Holt’s disappearance, the prime minister was declared dead. Three days after that, on December 22, some 20,000 people attended Holt’s memorial service at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne.
National Archives of AustraliaHarold Holt’s memorial service. His successor as prime minister, John McEwen, stands on the church steps with other world leaders.
To some, that seemed to be the end of the story. For Lawrence Newell, the police inspector who investigated Holt’s disappearance in 1967, the story of Holt’s disappearance certainly seemed to be cut and dry.
“I think he went for a swim under conditions where he was most unwise,” Newell remarked, “and that’s it.”
Indeed, Holt had nearly drowned at the same spot while snorkeling before. What’s more, he’d been warned against physical exertion following his shoulder surgery, and he was taking medication for the pain. But in the years after Holt disappeared beneath the waves at Cheviot Beach, a number of conspiracy theories have bubbled to the surface.
One suggested that Holt had died by suicide. Perhaps the prime minister had grown depressed by his decreasing popularity, or felt the weight of his decision to support the United States in the Vietnam War. Perhaps his marital woes had become too much to handle — Holt allegedly had multiple affairs — and Holt decided to end his life. Or, another theory suggests, perhaps Holt had faked his death in order to be with Gillespie.
Another Vietnam-related theory suggests that the CIA — perhaps wary of Holt’s commitment to the war — had him killed. Meanwhile, some have speculated that Holt was abducted by a Chinese submarine, or even that he was a secret Chinese spy and that he swam out to a submarine because he knew that the Australian intelligence had discovered his true loyalty.
“Harry? Chinese submarine?” his widow, Zara, exclaimed upon hearing this theory. “He didn’t even like Chinese cooking.”
Indeed, Holt’s family members have been quick to dispel any conspiracy theories. His son Sam Holt told The Australian that his father was a risk taker. Though others had avoided the rough waters on Cheviot Beach back in December 1967, Harold Holt had characteristically charged right in.
Robyn Cox/FlickrCheviot Beach, where Harold Holt disappeared in 1967. Today, beach access is forbidden because of the treacherous conditions.
“Harold is not a person who feared for his personal safety. He never was; he would swim in places and times when others wouldn’t,” Sam Holt remarked.
At the end of the day, Holt loved the water. He loved to swim. And it was seemingly in a nod to this passion, and not the circumstances of his death, that Australia opened the Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Center in 1969.
After reading about the strange disappearance of Australian prime minister Harold Holt in 1967, discover the fascinating story of the Yowie, Australia’s Bigfoot. Or learn about the Great Emu War of 1932, during which Australians fought local emus — and lost.
