MAN BELIEVED KILLED
DEER CULLER LOST IN AVALANCHE
FOOTPRINTS FOUND BY SEARCHERS
(New Zealand Press Association) INVERCARGILL, August 5.
A field officer of the Department of Internal Affairs, John Gordon Kennedy, aged 32, is believed to have been killed in an avalanche in the Dobson Valley, (near Lake Ohau, on Thursday. He was a son of Mr J. W. E. Kennedy, Springhill road, Mornington, Dunedin.
Mr Kennedy was in charge of a three-man party shooting thar and chamois in the Lake Ohau area. It is thought that he was carried away by an avalanche when he was separated from the other two members of the party.
On Thursday afternoon, the two other members of the party were not working with Mr Kennedy, but saw him high up on the face of a hill near their hut. When they returned to the hut in the evening, they could find no trace of him.
Shots were fired into the air, but no answer was received.
The two men found Mr Kennedy’s footprints in the snow. They followed the footprints until they led into an avalanche, not far from the hut. The footprints did not reappear on the other side of the avalanche, which was about 75 yards long and 15 feet wide.
A party of officers from the Department of Internal Affairs, led by Mr M. Kershaw, senior field officer, flew into the area yesterday.
The 30-mile-long Dobson Valley ends in a high ice cliff, over which experienced parties travel to The Hermitage. Rugged mountains enclose the whole valley, and avalanches are common. Two men were killed and eight persons injured in an accident at the head of the valley on January 1, 1947. -Press, 6/8/1955.
CULLER’S BODY FOUND
SEARCH IN DOBSON VALLEY
ACCIDENT EARLY THIS MONTH
(New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, August 15. The body of James Gordon Kennedy, a thar and deer culler, was recovered by a search-party at 12.30 p.m. today, according to a radio message received by Mr B. A. Vercoe, Conservator of Wild Life at Queenstown. The message to Mr Vercoe was from Mr M. C. Kershaw, a member of the search party. Another message, received at 6 p.m., said that the body had been taken to a flat below the Dobson Range.
The party, which resumed the search yesterday, consisted of nine men. Mr Vercoe could obtain no details from the party.
The body will be flown to Dunedin tomorrow.
Mr Kennedy, a field officer of the Department of Internal Affairs, was caught. in a great avalanche of snow that hurtled down a slope for about 1500ft into a gully in the Dobson Valley on August 4. A party that visited the scene soon afterwards found that the mass of snow had solidified. Bad weather prevented any action being taken, and the search was abandoned, until the weather became more favourable.
Mr Kennedy, who was single, aged 32, had been in the Dobson Valley for about a month with two other shooters. When he did not return to the hut his companions became anxious, and discharged shots into the air. When they received no answer they traced Mr Kennedy’s footprints to the site of the avalanche, and concluded that he had been swept away. -Press, 16/8/1955.
DEER CULLER’S DEATH
INQUEST AT FAIRLIE CONCLUDED
(From Our Own Reporter) FAIRLIE, October 9.
The death of James Gordon Kennedy, a deer stalker, in the Dobson Valley, Mackenzie Country, on August 4, was caused by asphyxia as the result of being overwhelmed by an avalanche. This was the finding of the district coroner, Mr J. A. Fraser, at an inquest which was concluded at Fairlie.
In evidence, Maxwell Kershaw, Senior Field Officer employed by the Internal Affairs Department, said that Kennedy had been missed by two of the department’s shooters who had been with him working in the Dobson Valley. Witness was a member of a party that found the body on August 15 in an avalanche. The body had been lying face downwards in packed snow, about 3ft 6in below the surface.
Dr. E. R. Harty gave evidence of having examined the body. There were no signs of injury, nor were there any fractures of the long bones or skull, he said. The Coroner said that this death in the mountains differed from the usual mountain accident, in that Kennedy, who had been a fit and experienced man, had met his death while carrying out his work as a deer culler. He commended the police and all who had helped in the search and the recovery of the body from difficult country. -Press, 10/10/1955.
Andersons Bay Cemetery, Dunedin.
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