Partridge VC Rest Area Southbound
HUME HIGHWAY
Photo: JF (All Rights Reserved)
Partridge VC Rest Area Southbound
WOLLONDILLY, NSW
HUME HIGHWAY
At a Glance
Victoria Cross Recipient
Private Frank John Partridge VC
8th Australian Infantry Battalion
Frank Partridge grew up on a family farm near Macksville on the NSW mid-north coast. He left school at thirteen to work the land and was called up for full-time military service in March 1943 when he turned eighteen. He was posted to the 8th Australian Infantry Battalion and deployed to Bougainville in the Territory of New Guinea as part of the final Australian campaign in the Pacific.
On 24 July 1945, two platoons of the 8th Battalion were ordered to destroy a Japanese position designated Base 5, near Ratsua on the Bonis Peninsula. As Partridge's section advanced through dense jungle, they came under intense machine-gun, grenade, and rifle fire from fortified bunkers. The Bren gunner was killed and several others fell wounded. Partridge himself was badly hit in the arm and leg, but he crawled forward, retrieved the Bren gun from alongside the dead gunner, and opened fire on the nearest bunker. He then rushed the position armed with a grenade and his knife, throwing the grenade into the bunker and killing the last occupant with his knife. He turned his attention to a second bunker and continued to attack until blood loss from his wounds forced him to stop.
He was twenty years old. His actions that day made him the youngest Australian to receive the Victoria Cross in the Second World War, the last Australian to be awarded the VC in that conflict, and the first member of the Militia (as distinct from the all-volunteer AIF) to earn the decoration. After the war he returned to farming, later appearing on Bob Dyer's television quiz show Pick a Box where he became one of only three contestants to win all forty boxes. He was killed in a motor vehicle accident near Bellingen in 1964 at the age of thirty-nine. Approximately 4,000 people attended his funeral at Macksville Cemetery.
Born 29 November 1924, Grafton, NSW. Died 23 March 1964, Bellingen, NSW.
References
Remembrance Driveway
Stop 2 of 20 along the Remembrance Driveway
View all 20 stops
- Sir Roden Cutler VC Rest Area
- Partridge VC Rest Area Southbound
- Kenna VC Rest Area
- Keith Payne VC Rest Area
- Gordon VC Rest Area
- Mackey VC Rest Area
- Kingsbury VC Rest Area
- Chowne VC Rest Area
- Derrick VC Rest Area
- French VC Rest Area
- Kibby VC Rest Area
- Edmondson VC Rest Area
- Gratwick VC Rest Area
- Gurney VC Rest Area
- Badcoe VC Rest Area
- Wheatley VC Rest Area
- Anderson VC Rest Area
- Middleton VC Rest Area
- Newton VC Rest Area
- Edwards VC Rest Area
Facilities
Safety
Location
Links
Nearby
Campsites(5)
Trails(3)
Attractions(5)
Toilets(3)
Groceries(5)
Fuel(5)
7-Eleven St Helens Park
7-Eleven · 8.4km
Updated 1h ago
EG Ampol Rosemeadow
EG Ampol · 8.4km
Updated 1h ago
7-Eleven Ambarvale
7-Eleven · 9.5km
Updated 1h ago
EG Ampol Spring Farm
EG Ampol · 9.7km
Updated 1h ago
Ampol Foodary Ambarvale
Ampol Foodary · 9.9km
Updated 1h ago
Dump Points(3)
Appin Park
Free · 6.7km
Picton Dump Point (locked)
Free · 11.7km
Warragamba Recreation Reserve
Free · 31.8km