Horrocks Pass and Hancock Lookout

It is always a treat for us if we have an excuse to travel through Horrocks Pass. If we have the chance to do that we will always take the opportunity to also visit Hancocks Lookout if time allows. It is often one of the best views of the day.

Horrocks Pass road (the B56 road) winds through the pass from the A1 Highway on the Western side of the range to Wilmington on the Eastern side. The turnoff to the pass road is about 20km from Port Augusta and 45 km form Port Germein.

Horrocks Pass itself is said to have been discovered by explorer John Horrocks in 1846 and was the route for much of the traffic from Port Augusta to more southern areas for many years.

Unfortunately Horrocks died the same year at only 28 years of age after he was shot by a camel (!) while on an exploration trip near Lake Dutton. Apparently Harry, the troublesome camel, kneeled down and his packload tripped one barrel of the shot gun (which Horrocks was loading), causing injuries which later resulted in death.

Turn off to Hancocks Lookout at approximately the location of the red X on the map above. (there is a sign at the junction) and travel along the dirt road for about 7km.

On a clear day you can see across Spencer Gulf to the hydrocarbon tanks at Port Bonython, the steelworks at Whyalla, the Middleback ranges and Dutchman’s Stern Range. The view is simply glorious, but the wind is usually ripping across this high vantage point, so make sure you have some warmer clothing handy if you plan to get out of the vehicle.

A good sign shows the main points of interest and a plaque shows the directions to get to many locations.

The way this lookout got its name is explained clearly on the sign, so I will leave you to read that.

Spend a while and soak up the marvellous views

before heading back to Horrocks Pass and continuing on to Wilmington.

We haven’t visited either the toy museum

or the puppet museum at Wilmington. Both are in the main street.

We haven’t tried out the historic walk or drive of the area either.

We did very much enjoy the warm hospitality and the delicious pies at Rustikate’s Feedlot though, and strongly recommend that you plan to be here early on for lunch (so that the pies haven’t run out yet).

The down side of this plan is that it is easy to stay too long in Wilmington and to run out of time for walking in other places…. but that is a story for another post.