December 17 being the 50th anniversary of the disappearance of Prime Minister Harold Holt while swimming at Cheviot Beach , Victoria, in l967 , here is a flashback to a lighthearted moment in Townsville when Holt, third from the right, laughing , visited the university , and was confronted by a student in underwater gear .
He and Mrs Holt, Zara , pictured , spent time relaxing and spearfishing in North Queensland . The PM had a friend from early university days in Melbourne , artist and environmentalist John Horatio Busst, involved in early moves to save the Great Barrier Reef from mining and oil drilling .
Recently a special ceremony was held at Ellison Reef to mark the 50th anniversary of the successful campaign led by Busst to prevent its mining . As a result , it set the legal precedent for protecting the Great Barrier Reef, a large part of it now in a sorry state due to coral bleaching , crown of thorns , runoff, undeniable climate change . According to those who inspected Ellison Reef last October it was not in very good shape. Part of the anniversary took part at Busst's distinctive residence , Ninney Rise, at Bingil Bay, from whence he led to the fight to save the reef and rainforest in the l960s and l970s.
In the Special Collections, Eddie Koiki Mabo Library , James Cook University, Townsville , are the important personal papers of Busst , which includes three boxes of letters , one to American president Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ), calling on him to back a move to set up adjoining marine and wildlife parks throughout Australia in honour of Harold Holt. There are also interesting letters from poet Judith Wright , strongly involved in the campaign to protect the Great Barrier Reef . Mrs Alison Busst was with Zara Holt the day the PM disappeared .
Made a Dame, Zara married a Liberal dairy farmer politician , Jeff Bate, in 1969 and lived with him in a 100 year old stone house at Tilba Tilba on the NSW south coast ; he died in 1984. Upon her death in 1989, she was buried at Sorrento Cemetery , the closest graveyard to Cheviot Beach where Harold Holt got caught in a rip and disappeared.
At the special House of Representatives Harold Holt commemoration this week were members of the family, Holt's press secretary Tony Eggleston , in the middle, former treasurer and friend of the family, Peter Costello, far left .
Former Northern Territory News Walkley Award winning reporter and author Keith Willey covered the dramatic Holt disappearance for the Sydney Sun .
