If you pedaled your way through 'ride to work day' this week, spare a thought for our old friend Ted Ryko who rode around the NT 100 years ago in his work as a photographer. Edward Reichenbach or 'Ryko' arrived in the Territory in 1914, riding to Darwin from Adelaide in the record-breaking time of 28 days, 15 hours and 30 minutes. He then set up a shop in Cavenagh Street, before selling it to travel through the Top End with his bike and camera, taking extraordinary and often humorous images with the help of people he met along the way. After he left the Territory, Ryko's collection of photographs and postcards were stolen from his Sydney home. As a result, of the nearly 3000 photographs Ryko took during his time in the Northern Territory, only a couple of hundred remain.
Published: 22 October 2017