Lock
Typical Eyre Peninsula wheatbelt town
Lock, which lies in the centre of the Eyre Peninsula, is located 300 km southwest of Port Augusta and 606 km northwest of Adelaide via the Princes and Eyre Highways. It is a typical Eyre Peninsula wheatbelt town operating as a service centre for the surrounding cereal and sheep farmers and offering very little of real interest to the passing traveller.

Due to the low rainfall and marginal conditions the first settlers did not arrive in the area until the 1860s. The land around Lock was initially held as pastoral leases. This meant that for a very low rental (around ten shillings per square mile) pastoralists could graze sheep on vast areas of land relying entirely on natural vegetation rather than any attempts at pasture improvement.

This process of land settlement occurred south of Lock as early as the 1861 when Price Maurice took up 26 sq. miles of land which he retained until 1888. Over the next thirty years the pastoral leases slowly extended north towards the present site of Lock. By 1884 some 401 sq. miles of pastoral leases in the area were being run by six graziers. All leases had either expired, been surrended or been abandoned by 1893 and two years later the area was officially proclaimed. The problem, as with most of the Eyre Peninsula, was the lack of reliable surface water.

A major change occurred in the area with the arrival of the railway line from Port Lincoln in 1913. The area was serviced by a siding known simply as Terre Siding after one of the local properties. This was changed when the town was gazetted on 28 February 1918 and named Lock after Corporal Albert Lock, a member of the South Australian Survey Department who had been killed in Belgium on 9 October 1917.

The railway opened up the area's wheat growing potential but still the problem of low rainfall persisted. The problem was finally resolved in 1926 when the pipeline from the Tod Reservoir was turned on. Ironically two years later it was found that Lock was located above a huge underground water supply which could provide nearly 7 million litres of fresh water per day.

Things to see:  

Hambridge Conservation Park
To the north of Lock is the large Hambridge Conservation Park which covers 37 847 ha and is notable for its mallee scrub and extensive sand dune system. The rainfall in the park is below 400mm and consequently much of the park is remarkably similar to the Big Desert district in the Mallee area of Victoria.

Hinck's Conservation Park
To the south of the town is Hinck's Conservation Park which covers 66 285 ha of largely inaccessible land which, again, is characterised by sand plains and dunes. It was dedicated in 1962 and is typical of the arid landforms which characterise much of the Eyre Peninsula.

	Motels
	Boomarang Motel Warramboo Rd Lock SA 5633 Telephone: (08) 8689 1193 Rating: **
	Hotels
	Lock Hotel/Motel Railway Tce Lock SA 5633 Telephone: (08) 8689 1181 Rating: **
	Caravan Parks
	Lock Caravan Park town centre Lock SA 5633 Telephone: (08) 8687 9177 Rating: *
	Restaurants
	Boomarang Motel Warramboo Rd Lock SA 5633 Telephone: (08) 8689 1193
	Lock Hotel/Motel Railway Tce Lock SA 5633 Telephone: (08) 8689 1181