Bent moved with his wife Elizabeth and their two daughters to Port Fairy, where he took up dairy farming. But he had not given up his political ambitions. In 1897 he unsuccessfully stood for Port Fairy, then in 1900 he moved back to Melbourne, and at the November 1900 election he was re-elected for Brighton. He completed his comeback by becoming once again Minister for Railways in William Irvine's conservative government. He was soon up to his old tricks, buying land in Brighton and then approving a tramline from St Kilda to Brighton that led right past his properties.