A watercolour on paper illustration of 'Surveyors' Encampment Yorkes (sic) Peninsula', by artist Edward J Snell. The encampment is dated July 12 1850.

Edward John Snell was an engineer, artist and adventurer. Snell recorded his travels in South Australia and Victoria in his diary, with candid descriptions and sketches.

This artwork features Indigenous people among the surveyors. Before white settlement around 1840, Yorke Peninsula was the home to the Narungga people. Today the descendants of these people still live on Yorke Peninsula, supported by the 'Narungga Aboriginal Progress Association' in Maitland, and in the community at Point Pearce near the northern end of Gulf Saint Vincent.

In his diary, the 1850 private survey expedition at 'Yorkes Peninsula' is described in detail, with a vocabulary of 'The Natives of Yorke's Peninsula' and a sketch map of the country traversed.

Later in 1852 Snell travelled to the Victorian goldfields to try his luck, and recorded daily life at the diggings.

Snell, Edward John, 1820-1880

Aboriginal peoples (Australians)

Snell, Edward The life and adventures of Edward Snell: the illustrated diary of an artist, engineer and adventurer in the Australian colonies 1849 to 1859 / edited and introduced by Tom Griffiths with assistance from Alan Platt. North Ryde, N.S.W.: Angus & Robertson and the Library Council of Victoria, 1988

SA Memory Foundation of South Australia 1800-1851

Gold! [Victorian Cultural Collaboration] See: Literature: Edward Snell: writer and illustrator

Yorke Peninsula, South Australia SA Tourism Commission

Yorke Peninsula, South Australia Wikipedia

Kadina, South Australia Wikipedia