A watercolour illustration of dingoes giving chase to kangaroos in the bush, in the Yorke Peninsula area. Aboriginal hunters are pictured far in the background. The artwork is in typical style of accomplished watercolour illustrator, Edward John Snell.

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

Snell worked as a surveyor on Yorke Peninsula between June and September 1850. In that time he recorded encounters including numerous kangaroo sightings and several kangaroo hunts with Aboriginal men, including the use of dogs to help run down the animals. He wrote:

'...we startled a young buck which we killed after a sharp run of about 2 miles-the kangaroo and dogs were soon out of sight but the blacks (sic) followed up their tracks nearly as fast as I could run and when we got to the kangaroo he was laying dead with the dogs panting by the side of him.'

Another kangaroo was killed later. The surveyors skinned the kangaroos, kept the tails and gave the rest of the kangaroos to their Aboriginal helpers.

On 18 August he recorded the hunt again, where five kangaroos we killed. Again they kept only the skins and tails giving the rest to the Aboriginal people. He also described the cooking methods used. On other occasions the surveyors lent their hunting dogs, and were rewarded with the tails, which they used to make 'a glorious supper of soup...'

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

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

Kangaroos, wallabies and rat-kangaroos edited by Gordon Grigg, Peter Jarman and Ian Hume Chipping Norton, N.S.W.: Surrey Beatty & Sons, 1989

Gould, John, Kangaroos; With modern commentaries by Joan M. Dixon South Melbourne, Vic.: Macmillan, 1973

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Kangaroos in Australia : conservation status and management , Canberra : Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service, 1988

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Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Edition: Search for Snell, E.J.

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PictureAustralia

SA Memory The Foundation of South Australia 1800-1851