Hansborough is situated between Kapunda and Eudunda and the Light River runs through the locality. The town was surveyed in July 1865 and named after Frederick Hansborough Dutton (1812–1890), an early pastoralist and an overlander, who founded Anlaby Station, near Kapunda. It was declared as ceasing to exist on 13 August 1936.
Boundaries were created for the part of the locality within the Light Regional Council on 16 March 2000 and for the part within the Regional Council of Goyder which includes the ceased Government Town of Hansborough on 24 August 2000.
The Hundred of Neales School, later Freshwater Creek School, opened in 1927 in a former manager's residence on the Kingscourt property and closed in 1940.