Pyke migrated with his wife and two sons on the Candahar, arriving in South Australia in 1851. He mined for two years in the Victorian goldfields, then opened a store near Forest Creek (Castlemaine). Becoming increasingly politically active, he opposed the government's mining policy. In 1855 he was elected to the Legislative Council, and in 1856 to the new Legislative Assembly. However, he was unable to afford his unpaid seat, and resigned in 1857, to become an immigration agent in England. He left Melbourne for England before the legislation creating his post had been passed, and found himself without a job in England, when the government fell and the office was not implemented.
In 1858 Pyke returned with his family to Victoria. In 1859 he was re-elected to the borough of Castlemaine, and thereafter became Commissioner of Trade and Customs and President of the Board of Land and Works in the William Nicholson government. In 1862 he went with a parliamentary delegation to New Zealand, where he was to remain for the rest of his life. He held a position as secretary and organizer of the goldfields department of the Otago Provincial Government, and was then warden and resident magistrate for the Dunstan and Tuapeka District. In 1873 he was elected to the New Zealand House of Representatives, where he served until 1890 and from 1893 to 1894.
Pyke's other works include The Adventures of George Washington Pratt : A Story of the New Zealand Goldfields (1874), a sequel to The Story of Will Enderby. He also wrote, with Thorpe Talbot, White Hood and Blue Cap : A Christmas Bough With Two Branches (1881), as well as a lecture on Australian exploration and several books about gold-mining and local government in New Zealand. Only his works with Australian content are listed here.
