The Australian Women's Register

This series consists of the personal papers of Dame Zara Holt, wife of former Prime Minister Harold Edward Holt. These mainly cover the period 1946 to 1989, although several items were accumulated subsequently by her eldest son Nicholas. Correspondence, newspapers, press cuttings and magazines account for most of the records in the series. Many of these items relate to the death of Holt in December 1967 and his memorial services in Melbourne a few days later and in Westminster Abbey, London in January 1968. Some include complete issues of major daily Australian newspapers and press cuttings from US newspapers, collected by the Australian News and Information Bureau in New York. The correspondence includes two files of condolences addressed to Nicholas Holt, one relating to Holt’s death and the other to Dame Zara’s death in June 1989. Another file includes a list of Holt’s personal papers deposited in the National Archives by the Prime Minister’s Department in 1968 and an inventory of his personal effects. Other items in the series relate to an overseas visit the Holts made in 1957, social engagements, fashion (including Dame Zara’s fashion business ‘Magg’) and to members of the Holt family in more recent years.