Dame Zara Kate Bate , an Australian clothier and bon vivant, the wife of Harold Holt, Australian Prime Minister in 1966 and 1967. Zara grew up in Melbourne, attending Ruyton Girls' School and Toorak College, and became a clothier, opening, in 1930, a dress shop which became the fount of a chain of boutiques. She married James Fell and bore three children. In 1946 she married Harold Holt – a parliamentarian of the Liberal Party and an old acquaintance. Holt succeeded Menzies as Prime Minister in 1966, and she became a public figure, known for her energy and flamboyance. In December 1967, Holt drowned at Cheviot Beach, Victoria. In 1969 she married Jeff Bate, member for Macarthur in the House of Representatives. When Bate died in 1984, she retired to the Gold Coast.
Early life and career
Zara Kate Dickins was born in Kew, Victoria in 1909. She was educated at Ruyton Girls' School and Toorak College. In 1930, she and her friend Bettine 'Betty' James established a dress shop in Little Collins Street. With another friend, she later opened a salon, called Magg, in Toorak Village. In 1961 a Magg dress won the Australian Gown of the Year award. Her first husband was Colonel James Fell, by whom she had three sons, Nicholas and twins Sam and Andrew. Their marriage broke down soon after the birth of the twins. They divorced, and in 1946 she married Harold Holt, a Liberal Party politician. He legally adopted her children and gave them his surname. Tom Frame's biography The Life and Death of Harold Holt reveals that Holt was the twins' biological father. and Mrs Wilson in 1967. Harold Holt was a member of Robert Menzies' Cabinet continuously from 1949, becoming deputy Liberal leader in 1956 and Treasurer in 1958. When Menzies retired in January 1966, Holt became Prime Minister. Zara brought a new style and prominence to the role of prime minister's wife. According to Diane Langmore, the author of Prime Ministers' Wives, Zara Holt "was the only one of the prime ministers' wives to have been a successful businesswoman. No intellectual, and not particularly introspective, she had common sense and a lack of pretension which endeared her to many. The tragedies of life did not make her bitter or cynical; she retained an openness and warmth until her death." In December 1967, Harold Holt disappeared while swimming near Portsea, Victoria; his body was never recovered. Zara was informed of her husband's disappearance by one of his secretaries, Peter Bailey. Zara Holt was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours of June 1968, for "devotion to the public interest". In 1968 Dame Zara published My Life and Harry: An autobiography.
Later life
On 19 February 1969, Dame Zara Holt married Jeff Bate, a farmer, Liberal politician and member of the Bate family of Tilba, New South Wales. She then became known as Dame Zara Bate. It was the third marriage for both of them. In the early 1970s, Dame Zara promoted Maxwell House instant coffee and Amana microwave ovens and refrigerators in television commercials. After Jeff Bate's death in 1984, Dame Zara retired to the Gold Coast, where she died in 1989 at age 80. Dame Zara was buried at Sorrento Cemetery, Victoria in the seaside suburb of the same name. Sorrento Cemetery is the closest cemetery to the site her second husband disappeared from, Cheviot Beach.
