Politics & Council
3 November, 2025
Note done yet! Holt back from major health scare
GAVAN Holt spent weeks in hospital intensive care making plans for an energised return to community life.
Specialists were hovering over the Loddon Shire councillor, initially perplexed by his declining health as up to 1.5 litres of fluid was drained daily from his lungs.
Partner Julie Benaim made daily trips to the hospital 76km away in Bendigo.
“Yes, I was seriously sick but I wasn’t going to chuck it in,” said the seven-time mayor father of the council first elected to represent Wedderburn Ward 22 years ago.
“I’m a determined sort of bastard and apparently you have to be really sick to die.”
Cr Holt had three stints in intensive care and weeks in high care as “doctors tried to fathom the problem”.
“There was a blood clot in the pulmonary artery and that then made the heart go fast, then there was the risk of drugs making the heart slow too much,” he said.
“This was producing fluid and filling the lungs ... I was constantly in and out of hospital. One night at home the blood pressure dropped to 50, I collapsed and back to hospital I was sent.
“But not for one minute did I think I wouldn’t be back in Wedderburn and on the job representing the communities.”
During the life close-call months starting in early June, Cr Holt said it was the support of Julie, family and friends that sustained him in the battle to regain health.
“When family visits, it’s only shifting the lounge room to a hospital ward. And just like at home, you don’t have to be talking to each other all the time ...it’s the company,” Cr Holt said.
“The CEO (Lincoln Fitzgerald) turned up one day and we spent the next two hours chewing the fat on the exciting future for Loddon and our communities.”
Cr Holt officially returned to council duties a fortnight ago, attending the monthly briefing for councillors.
And he has been out to the farm where shearing started last week. “Mostly watching although I did help shift a hay bale. I’m getting better every day, still a bit limited in what I can physically do”.
Cr Holt said he was revived “and really looking forward to the next three years of the council” that he said had developed in a collegiate team. He pointed to a recent state-wide staff cultural survey that ranked Loddon Shire at No 1 as a local government employer.
Cr Holt’s focus while doctors made sure he was nowhere near death’s door was on the people he has represented for decades and their plans to carve out a better future.
He pointed to the need for housing and Wedderburn Development Association’s use of annual council community planning group allocations for the town being saved for a housing development.
“The Reef Street housing estate is a key project I want to see start and the sod will be turned there in 2026,” he said.
“Wedderburn, Boort, Inglewood or Bridgewater, there’s not a house to rent. People who want to live in our communities can’t and for many of them, commuting for work is not an option.
“I’m pretty optimistic about the future of Loddon, Wedderburn and all our communities. There are lots of good things happening in our towns, for our industries who are significant local employers.
“That optimism and the support from Julie and so many people during a very difficult few months kept me alive, no doubt about it.”
Cr Holt said it was an invigorating day when he returned to council duties. “The mind was sharp, the body is getting better. I’m not finished yet.”
Read More: Wedderburn