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Partridge was active in the establishment of the Welfare Club in Tennant Creek when that mining field opened
and he paid regular visits to the town. This was a type of activity he had advocated from early days and one that
was important in frontier situations. When the Inter-Church Club was opened in Darwin in June 1940, he attended
along with several other patrol padres and he was asked to offer the prayer of dedication of that building. The club
proved to be of tremendous value in the period of the Second World War and after. His dream for an inland home
for ‘Old Timers’ of the bush was realised when with the assistance of D D Smith, resident engineer, he secured
the site near Mount Blatherskite, Alice Springs, for this purpose. He personally supervised the erection of the first
‘hut’, planted the first citrus and saw to the fencing and the sinking of a bore on the site.
When John Flynn died on 5 May 1950 and his ashes were flown to Alice Springs for burial, Partridge conducted
a most moving service for the interment of the ashes at the foot of Mount Gillen. There was a large gathering of
inland people and the service was broadcast over the RFDS network to all the stations in the bush and through
the Australian Broadcasting Commission to the rest of Australia. Following Flynn’s death the decision was taken
to build a church in Alice Springs as his memorial. Partridge was keen for this and raised the first funds to ensure
that this idea came to pass. However, before construction began the AIM was in financial difficulties in relation
to its general mission program. Decisions were made for economies and these included the closing of the Central
patrol and the hostel in Alice Springs. Partridge was to do promotional work in New South Wales and Victoria.
Partridge opposed this shut down of the Centre and when the decision was known, he resigned in protest but with
tremendous sadness. He retired to Arckaringa west of Oodnadatta in the land he loved and among the people he
knew. While there in 1957 he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his services
to the inland, an honour well deserved and which some considered belated. After the marriage of Partridge’s
daughter to Ronald Reid, a farmer near Victor Harbour in South Australia, Skipper and Gertie settled in that town
where he lived in quiet retirement until his death on 2 September 1976. His wife lived for another year, dying on
29 September 1977. Their ashes are interred in the grounds of the Old Timers Home in Alice Springs. His daughter
Grace (Reid) of Victor Harbour survived him.
A W Grant, Camel Train and Aeroplane: The Story of Skipper Partridge, 1981; Australian Inland Mission files, NLA; Partridge Diaries, in
possession of G Reid; personal interviews and information.
A W GRANT, Vol 1.
PASCOE, NADIA previously IVANETZ (1915– ), farmer, was born in Estonia, then part of Russia,
on 16 September 1915. She later moved to Harbin in China, where she married Ivan Antonovitch (John) Ivanetz.
She then travelled from Harbin to Nagasaki in Japan and from there to Thursday Island, Queensland, where she
boarded Marella and arrived in Darwin in 1936. Her husband had lived in Katherine, Northern Territory, since
1929, where he owned a farm on the river.
The Ivanetzs lived down river on the farm, growing peanuts. Nadia had two children. Her home, a corrugated
iron dwelling, was fairly primitive. She cooked over an open fire and there was no running water.
After the Japanese bombed Darwin, they bombed Katherine. Then the police went to all the farms to tell the
women and children that they would have to go. She prepared a small swag and case of clothes for the children
plus a billy can, pannikin, enamel plates and knives and forks. As she was preparing a chicken to take on the trip,
aeroplanes flew over and she recognised the sound as Japanese, having heard them before. She and the children
took off for a creek, where they hid.
Evacuations took place immediately and Nadia and the children travelled to Birdum in a train, which had
hard wooden seats and no toilets. Water was from a bag that was hung outside of the carriage to keep cool. From
Birdum they went by military truck to Alice Springs. They spent the nights in Army camps where they slept in their
swags in tents. All up, it was a four-day trip. In Alice Springs, they were billeted at the Australian Inland Mission
Home and she met George and Lorna Lim, also from Katherine, who gave her some money and food, as she had
neither.
From Alice Springs, they went by Army train to Adelaide, another four to five day trip. The Army fed them all
very well and when they stopped everyone boiled their billies besides the train. Many of the women complained
about the tinned food and threw it away, so Nadia collected it and by the time she arrived in Adelaide, she had
two bags of tinned food. She was shocked at their wasteful attitude. The Red Cross looked after the Ivanetzs in
Adelaide, gave them clothes, toys for the children and food and placed them in accommodation.
Nadia spent 12 months in Adelaide before returning by Air Force aeroplane to the Katherine River farm, where
she helped John, who had been growing vegetables all through the war and selling them to the Army. The military
took all their vegetables and on occasions, they also bought their poultry and goats. The Americans were very
generous with their rations and Nadia enjoyed American food, particularly the nuts and chocolates. Her third child
was born in the military hospital at Manbulloo in 1945.
After the war, she and Ivanetz were divorced and she married Fred Pascoe, moving to his farm up river where
she continued to work as a farmer’s wife. They grew peanuts at first and Nadia had a further four children. They
sold the farm in 1966 and moved into town where they established a garage before leaving Katherine in 1968.
Although they retired to Maitland in South Australia, the Pascoes returned to live in Katherine during the 1970s
before retiring south once more. They were regular visitors to the Top End where much of their family still lives.
Fred passed away on 4 March 1990 in South Australia.
Family information.
PEARL OGDEN, Vol 2.