Robert Cock (25 May 1801 – 23 March 1871) was one of the first European explorers of the Adelaide region of South Australia following the establishment of the colony in December 1836.

Robert was born in Dysart, Fife, Scotland in 1801, and arrived in South Australia with his family aboard HMS Buffalo in December 1836, thus being in the first group of settlers in the new colony.

He was for a time in partnership with fellow Buffalo passenger William Ferguson as auctioneers, and owners of Magill estate (then spelled Makgill, named for Cock's trustee), which they subdivided.

In December 1837, Robert led a party of William Finlayson, A. Wyatt and G. Barton to explore the country between Adelaide and Lake Alexandrina.

[8] In August 1838, Robert Cock along with Edward Eyre and Bewes Strangways travelled back to Mount Barker to meet the celebrated explorer Charles Sturt, who had driven stock from New South Wales to Adelaide[9] In December 1838, Robert and the surgeon, R. G. Jameson, conducted a survey of the east coast of Yorke Peninsula.

'I felt it my duty', he informed the local Protector of Aborigines in 1838, 'to pay to the proper authorities for the use of the natives this yearly rent'.

[13] After several years as a land agent, Robert took up farming, first at Balhannah in the Adelaide hills and by 1853[14] in Mount Gambier, where he was one of the original residents.