George Stothert played an important role in encouraging and helping his young cousin Edward Snell in his engineering career.

[3] A reduction in wages brought about by the post railway mania crash of 1848-9, caused him to decide to emigrate to Australia at the age of 29 with his friend Edward Prowse, having considered America.

He arrived in Adelaide on the Bolton on 29 November 1849, recording in his diary: When I was 21 I calculated on making a small fortune by the time I was 30 but have made little headway in that line as yet.

Snell spent some time in South Australia surveying and painting, spending three months on the Yorke Peninsula in 1850, then around Lake Alexandrina at the Murray River mouth.

[7] However, his railway work was not without controversy as he was criticised for the inadequacy of the engineering, with light timber bridges requiring extra maintenance and having a short life span, and the decision to build only a single track leading to slow and infrequent trains, and travelers between Melbourne and Geelong continued to prefer the bay steamers across Port Phillip Bay leading to diminished profits for the company.

[11] Snell was an avid reader and self educator, joining the Adelaide and Geelong Mechanics Institutes; he became a member of the Geelong Society of Architects, Engineers and Surveyors; and the Philosophical Institute of Victoria in 1857[12] (later the Royal Society of Victoria) Snell returned to England in 1858 with his family on the Norfolk, to a life of retirement, having amassed the fortune that was his intention, and secured a considerable income of around £300 per annum.

[13][14] While the illustrations in his diaries and engineering drawings constitute his primary artistic output, his sketches, water colours and oil paintings form a moderate compendium of works of some note.