Partridge Farm is located at Lowburn, a small settlement near the Central Otago town of Cromwell. In the 1850s Central Otago was a sparsely populated land where a few pastoralists had taken up leases on large runs, driving their flocks of sheep long distances from the ports of Dunedin, Molyneux (at the mouth of the Clutha River) and Moeraki. All this area of Central Otago is well-known for its history of gold mining that followed the discovery of gold at Gabriel's Gully, near the town of Lawrence, in 1861. Little is known about the Partridge family apart from what can be found in land title records and a single mention of George Partridge and possibly his sons in a history of Central Otago . George Partridge was amongst those who rushed to the Otago goldfields in the 1860s, probably travelling inland from Dunedin over the Dunstan Trail on foot. He evidently first purchased only half an acre at Lowburn in 1867, possibly the area of a mining claim, but in 1875 his land holdings increased with a further Crown Grant of approximately 10 acres. By the time of the 1875 Crown Grant, Partridge had built a house and stockyard on his land, visible in the survey plan, but none of the outbuildings were shown. In 1876 Partridge may still have been involved in gold mining. The name George Partridge appears, along with James and Henry Partridge, among those who formed both the Carlyle and Caledonian Quartz Mining Company and the Working Miners' Quartz Company working at Thompson's Gorge near Bendigo. In 1885 George Partridge passed the property on to Henry Partridge, probably his son; in 1896 Henry Partridge had a seat on the Vincent County Council. Even when it was at its largest holding, the Partridge Farm was small, dwarfed by the large runs of neighbouring sheep stations such as Mt Pisa, located on the mountain range behind Lowburn, as well as Kawarau, Lowburn Valley, Bendigo and Mt Difficulty Stations, which each had land holdings of many thousands of acres. By 1948 the Partridge Farm had increased to a total of 478 acres (193.75 hectares) as adjoining sections were bought up, and it remained in the Partridge family, descendants of George, until 1989, when it was sold to the McLennans. The Lowburn valley is now situated on the shores of Lake Dunstan, formed by the damming of the Clutha River that followed Parliamentary approval for this contentious scheme in 1975. Part of the Lowburn settlement now lies under the waters of the lake, as does much of the historic part of Cromwell. In the last fifteen years, the Central Otago landscape has seen a new economic boom in the form of viticulture. Commercial vineyard planting began after the flooding of the Clutha Valley in the 1980s and has increased in the following years, including Lowburn Ferry Vineyard sited around the former Partridge Farm. In 1991 the property was subdivided into two parts. The piece of land on which the dairy is located was sold to a group of purchasers including the Otago historian Tom Brooking and his wife Patricia , who use this as a weekend and holiday retreat. Their property has a 1920s house which they use as a residence; the dairy, a building that they treasure, does not have any particular use. The other part of the former Partridge Farm is owned by Roger Gibson and his wife Mary Jean Grierson who have developed Lowburn Ferry Vineyard, with nut trees and lilacs also grown and merino sheep farming carried out. Lowburn Ferry, the name of the vineyard, is taken from the historic name for Lowburn and its function as the site of the Clutha River crossing for those travelling between Cromwell and the Bendigo gold workings . Three of the structures, the stables, chaff house and implement shed, are on this section of the subdivided property. The Gibsons have modified the stables for use as a family home, the implement shed retains its original use as a storage shed for agricultural and horticultural implements, and the chaff house is used as a storage shed. In its current use as a vineyard, horticultural and small merino sheep farming unit the former Partridge Farm reflects the historical and changing land practices of Central Otago.

The stables, dairy, chaff house and implement shed are constructed from schist stone and limestone mortar, provide a clue to the farming activities carried out here. The dairy indicates that the Partridge family kept dairy cows, processing the milk into butter and cheese and storing milk products in the cool building. The other three buildings, the stables, implement shed and chaff house, were needed to house the horses and horse-drawn equipment required for farming, such as reaping and threshing machines. The area that is now planted in grapes was used as a hay paddock for over 100 years, growing winter feed for stock. Stables The Stable is a rectanglar plan building with a simple gabled roof. All that remains of the original stonework is the back wall and the two end walls. The stone front wall was constructed in the 1980s, with casement windows inserted. The building has been modified again for use as a dwelling, c.1992. The original scotch iron is still in place on the roof. It is illustrated in its former (but not original) form, with no front wall, in Thornton and in Pinney. At this time the stables evidently served as an implement shed, alongside the original building of the same purpose, which still serves this function today. Chaff House The Chaff House is simple rectangular plan structure with a scotch iron roof and wooden louvres in the gable ends for ventilation. The door faces the neighbouring stables (now a house). The Chaff House originally had a water wheel on the southern wall to turn a chaff cutter. Implement Shed This structure has a wooden centre post, cobbled floor and scotch iron roof. It has an open front with three solid stone walls, and no windows. Dairy This is a simple rectangle plan building with an earth floor, a whitewashed plastered interior and two small windows on either side of the central wooden door. It also has a small window on the south west (rear) wall. The stone construction keeps this building cool, an important feature of its original use as a dairy. Thornton points out that in the nineteenth century the implement shed, built with an open front like the Partridge example, was used to store an array of tools relating to agriculture. Prior to the development of agricultural machinery hand held implements such as spades, shovels, hoes, sickles and scythes may have been housed in barns and stables. From the 1860s onwards machinery such as ploughs, harrows and reaping and threshing machines were also in use, as well as occasional steam engines, all requiring housing in the implement shed, which may have doubled as a coach house; Thornton refers to the Partridge implement shed as a "buggy shed."