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    From the blog

    On This Day: a plot to kill Harold Holt?

    2 minute read

    Wed 16 Nov 2016 by
    David Jolliffe
    • Harold Holt
    • On This Day
    • Prime Minister

    After waiting six days outside Parliament House for Prime Minister Harold Holt to get back from Melbourne, Nedeljko Gajic decided to return to Sydney to look for work. On 16 November 1966, he was arrested in Braidwood after threatening a taxi driver. It was alleged by police that Gajic gave a statement that he intended to ‘kill the head man of Australia, Mr Holt.’

    Gajic stated that he arrived in Canberra on November 10, to make police believe he came to Canberra to kill the prime minister, in the hope that he would be sent back to Yugoslavia. He was found to be in possession of a cut-down .22 calibre rifle and magazines containing up to 100 rounds of ammunition, along with a photo taken from a newspaper of Prime Minister Holt.

    In his police interview he recounted how upon entering Parliament House, ‘I left the brief case inside near the door because it was quite heavy and I did not want to carry it around. The rifle was loaded and had the larger magazine in it. I went inside… and a man spoke to me and showed me where the Government was and where the Senate was.’

    After two trials in December 1966 and March 1967, where juries failed to reach a verdict, the Crown decided not prosecute charges against Gajic any further.

    Holt commented, ‘The decision not to go ahead with the third trial…was convincing evidence of the strength of democracy in Australia.’ There were some accounts that a single shot was fired at the building, cracking a window, while Holt was working. This is not supported by any of the newspaper reports of the incident.

    2 minute read

    Wed 16 Nov 2016 by
    David Jolliffe
    • Harold Holt
    • On This Day
    • Prime Minister
    Harold Holt jostled during a November 1966 election rally in Rockdale. NAA: M4294, 7.

    Harold Holt jostled during a November 1966 election rally in Rockdale. NAA: M4294, 7.

    David Jolliffe joined the Australian Prime Ministers Centre as Assistant Manager in 2007. He previously worked at the Australian War Memorial and the National Archives of Australia and likes assisting people to learn more about Australian Prime Ministers and political history.

    Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House

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