[3] The family lost their Wye River holiday home in the 2015 Christmas Day bushfire.

During the time of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, he managed the editorial work of all metro newspapers belonging to the Fairfax Media group.

Despite the loss of their building, Holden and his team published the next edition of the newspaper 15 hours later, much to the amazement of the residents of a city devastated by the earthquake and to international acclaim.

[8][9] On 2 July 2012,[10] Holden took up the editor-in-chief role at The Age in his hometown Melbourne; the appointment was announced on 26 June, only one day after Paul Ramadge's resignation from Fairfax.

[1][11] His placement at The Age commenced on 27 June and until 31 August, Holden split his time between Christchurch and Melbourne before a permanent move to his home city.

[2] Newspaper columnist Lawrence Money commented that after Holden's leaving speech at The Age, he received "the longest round of applause that [he] heard for an editor in [his] 50 years on metro papers.