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.
Lock at a glance
- Population (2021)
- 253
- Median age
- 38
- Median weekly household income
- $1,125
- SEIFA score
- 973
- Coordinates
- -33.5879, 135.7322
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%, 26% of homes are rented, 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.
- Median weekly rent
- $120
- Median monthly mortgage
- $512
- 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.
Common questions about Lock
Where is Lock?
Lock is a suburb of South Australia, Australia.
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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