Snell, Edward (1820 - 1880)

Summary

Edward Snell was responsible for the design, construction and operation of Australia's first country railway - the Geelong to Melbourne Railway, for the Geelong and Melbourne Railway Company, from 1853 - 1857, becoming its engineer-in-chief when he retired. His illustrated diaries in Australia between 1849 and 1858 provide detailed observations of engineering works, goldfields operations, studies of insects and animals, geography and society that are not described elsewhere.

Details

After serving an apprenticeship with Henry Stothert (1797 - 1860) of Bath, and at the Avonside Iron Works in Bristol, Snell while working for the Great Western Railway made drawings and superintended construction of many Locomotives including the 'Premier', the 'Iron Duke', and the 'Britain', as well as the 'Lord of the Isles' which was exhibited in the Great Exhibition of 1851. Having carried out trials while in England to compare broad and narrow gauge locomotives, he preferred the Irish gauge to the English gauge.

Arriving in Adelaide in 1849, then working as a surveyor and artist, he headed for the Mount Alexander goldfields, and after some success settled in Geelong. He was Chairman of the Provisional Committee of the Geelong to Melbourne Railway in 1852. He retired and returned to England in 1858 with his family and his amassed fortune.

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Cumming, D. A., Some Public Works Engineers in Victoria in the Nineteenth Century (Melbourne: University of Melbourne, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, 1985), 59 pp. Details

Edited Books

• Griffiths, Tom ed., The Life and Adventures of Edward Snell: the Illustrated Diary of an Artist, Engineer and Adventurer in the Australian Colonies 1849 to 1859 (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1988), 524 pp. Details