Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

The Harold Holt Mystery (1985)

play
Email a link to this page
To:
CC:
Subject:
Body:
clip The prime minister is missing

Original classification rating: PG. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

Radio and television carries news of Harold Holt’s disappearance. Holt’s widow, Dame Zara Bate, remembers the day her husband vanished.

Curator’s notes

by Richard Kuipers

The archival footage in this segment provides a vivid picture of a day without precedent in Australian history. Primitive by today’s standards, outside broadcast technology brings grainy black-and-white television pictures live from Cheviot Beach. It is an almost surreal scene, with helicopters, navy divers and the army arriving at Cheviot to search for Harold Holt. Holt’s widow, Dame Zara Bate, gives a disarmingly honest account of how she reacted at the time. Tony Eggleton, Holt’s press secretary, served as Federal Director of the Liberal Party from 1975–90.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer The prime minister is missing from the documentary The Harold Holt Mystery as a high quality video download.

To play the downloadable video, you need QuickTime 7.0, VLC, or similar.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before downloading the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

This clip is available in the following configurations:

File nameSizeQualitySuitability
haroldho1_pr.mp4 Large: 22.3MB High Optimised for full-screen display on a fast computer.
haroldho1_bb.mp4 Medium: 10.5MB Medium Can be displayed full screen. Also suitable for video iPods.

Right-click on the links above to download video files to your computer.

Thanks to the generosity of the rights holders, we are able to offer this clip in an embeddable format for personal or non-commercial educational use in full form on your own website or your own blog.

You must read and agree to the following terms and conditions before embedding the clip:

australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

Copy and paste the following code into your own web page to embed this clip: