Lock, SA
By Lauren McCaleb · Reviewed by Dylan Duncan ·
Lock stands near the centre of South Australia's Eyre Peninsula, where the Tod and Birdseye highways meet on open farming country about 146 kilometres north of Port Lincoln. Settlers took up land here from the 1860s, the Port Lincoln railway reached the site in 1913, and the town was gazetted in 1918. It carries the name of Sergeant Albert Ernest Lock, a South Australian survey-department officer killed on the Western Front in Belgium in 1917 - a quiet wartime memorial in the form of a town. Wheat and other cereals, along with sheep, underpin the economy, and Lock serves the surrounding farms as a grain-handling and service hub with its heritage museum, institute hall and country sporting clubs.
Around the national middle
Lock is more socio-economically advantaged than about 42% of the 14,462 Australian suburbs we score, based on the ABS SEIFA index (raw score 973, where about 1000 is the national average).
A socio-economic measure from ABS Census data — not a measure of how good a suburb is to live in or visit. How we calculate this.
Is Lock a good place to live?
There’s no single answer — it depends on what matters to you. So instead of one mystery number, we break it down: a transparent score on each part of life we can back with public data, and an honest “not yet” on the parts we can’t.
Around the national middle
A weighted blend of the 2 components we can score for Lock from public data. It sits alongside — and reconciles with — the socio-economic Suburb Score above; it is a transparent read, not a complete verdict.
Socio-economic advantage
42/100Around the national middle
Around the national middle — the same ABS SEIFA-based Suburb Score (42/100) shown above. Income, education and occupation, as published by the ABS. · ABS SEIFA 2021
Housing affordability
92/100More affordable than most suburbs
Median weekly rent was $120 at the 2021 Census — more affordable than about 92% of suburbs we can compare. Housing data only, no valuations. · ABS Census 2021
Not yet scored
We’d rather leave these open than publish a number we can’t stand behind. Here’s where each one stands.
- Amenities & accessNot scored yet — our OpenStreetMap amenity mapping is still rolling out across suburbs.
- Green spaceNot scored yet — our OpenStreetMap green-space mapping is still rolling out across suburbs.
- TransportNot scored yet — our OpenStreetMap public-transport mapping is still rolling out across suburbs.
- SchoolsNot scored yet — school performance (ACARA / ICSEA) needs a data-reuse licence cleared before we can publish it.
- SafetyNot scored yet — Australia has no single open crime dataset and safety data carries defamation and legal care, so it is gated pending a go/no-go and will be data-only when added.
- CommunityNot scored yet — we won't reduce community to a number from a proxy. We'd rather leave it open than publish an invented value judgement.
A transparent read on public data, not a verdict — and not a measure of any person or community. See our methodology for how each component is worked out and why some aren’t scored yet.
Lock at a glance
- Population (2021)
- 253
- Median age
- 38
- Median weekly household income
- $1,125
- SEIFA score
- 973
- Local government area
- Elliston
- Coordinates
- -33.5879, 135.7322
Map of Lock
© OpenStreetMap contributors · View larger map
Housing & property in Lock
What it costs to live in Lock and how residents hold their homes, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census.
- Median rent
- $120
- per week
- Median mortgage
- $512
- per month
- Owner-occupied
- 66%
- of dwellings
- Rented
- 26%
- of dwellings
The full tenure and dwelling-type breakdown is in the Lock demographics section below.
Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021. © Australian Bureau of Statistics, released under CC BY 4.0. See our methodology.
Lock demographics (2021 Census)
The figures below profile Lock using the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census; every percentage is a share of a clearly stated Census count, so each one traces back to the source. At a glance, the largest age group is mid-life (45–64) at 30% and 6% of residents were born overseas.
Age profile
| Age group | People | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Children (0–14) | 58 | 23% |
| Youth (15–24) | 20 | 8% |
| Young adults (25–44) | 55 | 22% |
| Mid-life (45–64) | 76 | 30% |
| Seniors (65+) | 44 | 17% |
Share of the 253 people counted by age.
Housing and households
| Tenure | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Owned outright | 41 | 46% |
| Owned with a mortgage | 18 | 20% |
| Rented | 23 | 26% |
| Dwelling type | Dwellings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Houses | 91 | 100% |
| Townhouses & semis | 0 | 0% |
| Flats & apartments | 0 | 0% |
Tenure and dwelling shares are of the roughly 91 occupied private dwellings in Lock.
- Average household size
- 2.2 people
- Median weekly family income
- $1,375
- Median weekly personal income
- $729
Community and culture
- Born overseas
- 14 (6%)
- Speaks a language other than English at home
- 4 (2%)
- Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
- 7 (3%)
Work and education
- Completed Year 12
- 72 (38%)
- Labour-force participation
- 65.1%
- Unemployment rate
- 5.5%
- Employed full-time
- 75
- Employed part-time
- 40
Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021 (General Community Profile, by Suburb and Locality). © Australian Bureau of Statistics, released under CC BY 4.0. How we group bands and derive each share is set out on our methodology page.
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Common questions about Lock
Is Lock a good place to live?
There's no single answer, so we score what the public data can back. On socio-economic advantage and housing affordability, Lock rates 59/100 overall (Around the national middle). Public transport, schools and safety aren't scored yet — see our methodology for why.
What is the median rent in Lock?
At the 2021 Census, the median weekly rent in Lock was $120, and the median monthly mortgage repayment was $512. These are official ABS Census figures — StreetScout publishes housing data only, with no property valuations or agent referrals.
Where is Lock?
Lock is a suburb of South Australia, Australia, in the Elliston local government area.
What is the population of Lock?
At the 2021 Census, Lock had a population of about 253.
Is Lock an advantaged area?
Lock has an ABS SEIFA score of 973, where about 1000 is the national average — higher scores indicate greater relative socio-economic advantage. That gives it a Suburb Score of 42 out of 100 — more socio-economically advantaged than about 42% of Australian suburbs.
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