FROM THE VAULT

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From Bytes, November 30, 2010:

Harold Holt

Harold Holt (1908-1967), pictured above with his stepdaughters-in-law in 1967, was the local member for Malvern and Prime Minister of Australia from 1966. A keen diver and spear fisherman, he disappeared in rough seas off Cheviot Beach, Victoria on 17 December 1967. His body was never found.

At the time of Harold Holt's disappearance, Malvern Council had been constructing a swimming complex in the suburb of Glen Iris, the complex to be called the City of Malvern Olympic Centre.

In 1969 with the complex close to being finished, the Council decided to change the name. Not seeing the irony of naming the swimming complex after a Prime Minister who had been lost at sea whilst swimming, presumed drowned, the Council named the new complex the Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre. It remains so named to this day.

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From Bytes, December 8, 2017:

When Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared, an intensive search was mounted at Cheviot Beach.

News bulletins kept the public informed. As night fell and the search had to be discontinued, TV newsreader Geoff Raymond dutifully notified the audience that at Cheviot Beach, everything had "come to a dead halt.”

It was one of the things he remained remembered for and was again widely mentioned in the newspaper reports on Raymond's death in 2011.

Geoff Raymond