Perth’s King Col. . .A Vibrant and passionate Fighter for Freedom

We catch up with Colin Holly, a 75-year-old West Australian who went from being a regular, law-abiding bloke to a familiar face at the front lines of the anti-mandate protests. Before COVID, Colin’s only run-ins with the police were a couple of speeding fines; he’d spent his life playing football and coaching boxing, always getting along well with the local cops. But after losing his wife and seeing the way the country was heading under mandates and border closures, he decided he’d seen enough.

The story kicks off with Colin’s “great odyssey”—a last-minute decision to fix up his old Mazda 3 and drive nearly 4,000 kilometres to the 2022 Convoy to Canberra. He tells some classic stories from the road, including picking up a hitchhiking guitarist named “Strummer” who nearly drove him mad, and the “electrifying” feeling of eventually rolling into the EPIC campground with thousands of other Australians. Colin doesn’t mince words—he went there with revolution on his mind, hoping that if enough people showed up, they could actually push back against the government.

Things got even heavier on the way home when Colin hit the locked WA border. He describes the standoff at Border Village where he refused to turn around, eventually pushing through to get back into his own state. That act of defiance put a target on his back; he was intercepted by a massive police presence near Norseman, thrown in a paddy wagon, and ordered into a home quarantine that he had no intention of following. He opens up about the “vindictive” nature of the charges that followed—everything from border violations to being pinched for jaywalking—and his belief that he was being specifically targeted.

Despite the many court appearances and the time spent in a cold police cell, Colin hasn’t backed down. He eventually became a staple of the “Umbrella Group” outside Government House in Perth, standing his ground even when the police started getting heavy-handed. It’s a raw, honest look at what happens when a grieving widower decides he’s got nothing left to lose and everything to stand up for. Colin’s message at the end of it all is clear: he’s got no regrets, and he’d do the whole thing again tomorrow if he had to.

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