On 17th December 1967 Harold Holt, a powerful backstroker, vanished mysteriously while swimming off Victoria's rugged southern coast. Sir Harold had spent the previous 9-hours drinking at a nearby public house where locals said the atmosphere was convivial. His so-called 'disappearance' stunned a nation and shocked all who knew him. But for more than forty years there has been a deafening silence
from the authorities. Successive governments have failed to explain numerous eyewitness accounts of a suspicious Chinese submarine lurking in the vicinity of where Sir Harold was last seen. There has also been a failure to respond to reports that Sir Harold spent the 1970s as an indentured pianola player for a Shanghai-based burlesque act. The Harold Holt Disappearance Reenactment Society is dedicated to commemorating this great Australian and to uncovering the truth surrounding his disappearance. Each year the society reenacts what we believe to be the truth of Sir Harold's mysterious vanishing act. With a growing body of supporters, and generous financial assistance from the Golden Imperial Sea Anemone Chinese Takeaway Restaurant (Sorrento & Tootgarook), the society gathers in the Harold Holt Bar at the Portsea Hotel at 10am on 17th December every year, where members and guests drink heavily before walking several hundred metres and plunging into Bass Strait. The Society's Founder and National Convenor is Dr Erstwhile Truthwright, Australian of the Year (Nominee), 2002, 2003, 2004, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2016a. New members welcome.
