Cheviot Beach is a

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...

near

Point Nepean Point Nepean (Boonwurrung: ''Boona-djalang'') marks the southern point of The Rip (the entrance to Port Phillip) and the most westerly point of the Mornington Peninsula, in Victoria, Australia. It was named in 1802 after the British politician ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It was named after the SS ''Cheviot'', which broke up and sank nearby with the loss of 35 lives on 20 October 1887. It was the site of

the disappearance Disappearance may refer to: * Forced disappearance, when an organization forces a person to vanish from public view Books * ''Disappearance'' (Trifonov novel), published posthumously 1987 *''Disappearance'', novel by Guyanese writer David Daby ...

of Prime Minister

Harold Holt Harold Edward Holt (5 August 190817 December 1967) was an Australian politician who served as the 17th prime minister of Australia from 1966 until his presumed death in 1967. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party. Holt was born in S ...

; on 17 December 1967, Holt went swimming at the beach, disappeared, and was presumed drowned. He was last seen in the ocean and was then dragged under a wave, never to be seen again. His body was never recovered. Point Nepean had long been a restricted area, initially for quarantine and then later for defence purposes; at the time, it was used by the officer training school of the

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (Austral ...

, and Holt had reportedly been issued a special pass to use the beach. A lookout and memorial to Holt overlook the beach on Cheviot Hill, accessible via a self-guided walk from Point Nepean; however, there remains no beach access, with swimming prohibited for safety reasons. Surf Life Saving Australia rates it as "extremely hazardous" for swimming, noting "at high tide the rocks and reefs lie immediately off the beaches and, as the tide drops, strong permanent rips intensify off the rocks and amongst the reefs."

References

Mornington Peninsula Beaches of Victoria (Australia) {{VictoriaAU-geo-stub