Newsflash: the Prime Minister is missing

Radio and television carried news of Harold Holt’s disappearance on 17 December 1967. This clip is from the documentaryThe Harold Holt Mystery (Ten Network, 1985).

Outside broadcast technology brought grainy black-and-white television pictures live from Cheviot Beach. It was an almost surreal scene, with helicopters, navy divers and the army arriving to search for Harold Holt. It was like nothing Australia had seen before.

'I know this beach like the back of my hand', Holt said before venturing out into the the turbulent conditions. It was later concluded that high winds, rough seas and rip tides overcame him. It was speculated in the press that his body was never recovered because it was attacked by marine life, carried out to sea by tides or wedged in a rock crevice.