The Balcatta Hotel was located on Wanneroo Road in the early 1900s. Originally named the ‘Seven Mile Inn’, because it was located 7 miles from the General Post Office, the hotel was once considered a halfway house for market gardeners delivering produce to the James Street markets and for drovers taking stock to slaughter yards.
The hotel took shape in late 1898 and Edward Charles Atkins was granted a licence for the hotel two years later. Andrew Campbell Neaves went on to buy the property in 1906 and his mother Marion Morton Neaves purchased three blocks adjacent to the hotel. Mrs Neaves built a small house for her family on one of the blocks and a purpose-built stockyard for patrons to leave their horses. The property also featured a yard to hold cattle while drovers stopped in for refreshments.
Later sold to Benedetto Puglia, the property had its own sawmill that Mr Puglia operated behind the hotel. The hotel building was demolished after the war, around 1948 or 1949, and the former hotel site is now home to Big Rock Toyota.
