Partridges’ community love

• Scottsdale’s Peter and Lesley Partridge look back on a fruitful life.

By Daisy Baker
November 25, 2020

Scottsdale’s Peter and Lesley Partridge built a life together in the North-East in the early 60s, and all along the community has remained at the centre.
Mr Partridge was raised in Nabowla and he would ride from his home to Lietinna each day to catch the school bus to Scottsdale.
“Some days I actually rode right through to Scottsdale because I met up with Ron Grenda and he could always race me to school,” he said.
“From Blumont to Lietinna I used to ride beside the railway line. One day the late Mr Jack Brill who was the boss of the railway gang at Scottsdale, he came along in the trolley and he pulled up. He said ‘listen son, if it’s a wet day I have to patrol the line from Scottsdale to Nabowla before any trains come and on wet days I leave the gang in Scottsdale, so if it’s really wet and you wait at Nabowla station, and I’ll pick you up’.
“He used to hang my bike up on the back of the trolley and let me off near the back of the high school.”
After finishing school, in 1956 Mr Partridge spent three years in Hobart training as a PMG technician before he was posted back to Scottsdale.
Meanwhile, a young Mrs Partridge spent her early years growing up on her family’s farm at Pyengana where the cheese factory is now.
“My father was a cheesemaker by heart but he didn’t make cheese where it is now, he made it with another man, Don Jestrimski just up the road,” she said fondly.
“My dad always thought it would be a good idea to start a cheese factory, selling our own milk but he died as a young man so he didn’t get the opportunity but my brother and my nephew took on the opportunity and it grew from there.”
Mrs Partridge attended primary school at Pyengana and then travelled to St Helens each day for high school.
She moved out of the area when she got a hairdressing apprenticeship in Launceston at Andres.
The salon owner Mrs Bushby then opened a salon in Scottsdale so Mrs Partridge moved back to the region.
“That’s when I met Peter – he was the young technician and I was the young hairdresser,” she laughed.
They first met at the Scottsdale Show through friends in the late 1950s and were married in St Michael’s church at Pyengana in 1961, which was followed by a reception at the St Helens Hotel.
They’ve now been happily married for almost 60 years, during which they have raised their two children Lou and Richard.
The Partridges moved to their current home around 40 years ago, so they had somewhere to run their daughter Lou’s horse.
They made fond memories as a family holidaying in their caravan at Croquet Lawn beach in Bridport over the Christmas break for many years.
“Peter went to work and I used to stay there with the children. That was good fun. You knew everybody who was coming each year,” Mrs Partridge said.
Over the years Mr Partridge has been an active member of many community groups including serving as the president and secretary of Scottsdale Football Club, assistant scout leader with John Gibb, secretary of Bridport Postal Cricket Club, president of North-East Pony Club, and a member of the Rotary Club of Scottsdale for 52 years.
During this time, he has helped bring lots of Rotary projects including the Rail Trail to fruition with the likes of Don Dickenson.
As a keen golfer Mr Partridge enjoyed being involved with the golfing fellowship of Rotary, through which he has been to 25 national Rotary championships around Australia.
“We went to Western Australia, right up to Cairns and had three trips to Darwin,” he said.
“That was wonderful. We played all the top golf courses in Australia.”
Amidst working for these community groups, Mr Partridge also racked up 42 consecutive years on Council, making him the region’s longest serving councillor.
He was first elected to Scottsdale Council in 1972 and finished up with Dorset Council in 2014, during which he was the Scottsdale warden from 1990-1993, Dorset mayor from 1993-1999, deputy mayor from 2000-2002 and mayor from 2002-2009.
Mr Partridge was awarded an OAM and is a life member of the Local Government Association in recognition of his service to Council and the community.
The pair bought Roses Newsagency in the mid 1980s, which they ran for eight years before they sold it to their daughter in-law.
“It was a fairly long day – we opened at 6am and finished at 6 at night,” Mr Partridge said.
“The paper is in plastic bags now but in those days, we had a machine here that you had to wrap them and then go and deliver them.”
Mrs Partridge said while they were busy years, she has fond memories of that time.
“I enjoyed the people and I loved it. Then I retired and went to work here in the garden,” she laughed.
She spends much of her time maintaining their garden, which is visible in all its glory from each of their living room windows.
In recent years Mrs Partridge said she has enjoyed several overseas trips, including a trip to Paris with her daughter last year for a wedding and a visit to the Chelsea Flower Show in London a few years prior.
Since giving up golf, Mr Partridge has become a regular walker, walking from their house on the outskirts of Scottsdale to the town clock each day which is a six-kilometre trip.
Mr Partridge has a keen interest in history and has been collecting items of interest for as long as he can remember.
Lining the walls of their home are old telephones, a lantern slide projector, old clocks and old chairs.
Mr Partridge said he’s never considered leaving the North-East.
“I can’t understand why you’d want to move out of paradise.”
The Partridges are both active members of the Anglican Church in Scottsdale and are enjoying watching their four grandchildren grow up.