[1] Some years earlier his interest in the Northern Territory had been stimulated by reports from his nephew, Frederick Henry Litchfield.

Reynolds did his best to restore order and returned to Adelaide where he reported favourably on the mineral resources of the north.

He was not successful there, and was returning to Adelaide on the SS Gothenburg which was wrecked in a tropical cyclone near the Great Barrier Reef on 24 February 1875, and he was drowned.

Reynolds was a shrewd business man, a hard worker, and a good treasurer, but was of too sanguine and fiery a temperament to be a politician of the first rank.

He was a pioneer in jam-making and raisin-curing in South Australia, but his devotion to his parliamentary duties led sometimes to the neglect of his own financial interests.