Lots 514 & 515 Tower Street

Built circa 1920, Patroni's Guest Home was one of a number of boarding houses in Gwalia to provide accommodation and meals for single miners working at the nearby Sons of Gwalia Mine.

Many of the residents were immigrants from Italy and Yugoslavia, earning Patroni's the nickname “the migrant's hostel”.

The 1922/23 Rate Book records show a residence (a miner’s camp) on Lot 514 Tower Street and next door, on Lot 515, a boarding house owned by Giuseppe Capaelli and operated by Mrs Capaelli.

By 1925 a Mrs Ryan is recorded as the owner of the boarding house and in July 1929 Dina Patroni acquired the boarding house and dining room from her.

Mrs Patroni soon also held the lease for Lot 514, where the quarters for single men were constructed. The 16 rooms could each accommodate two men.

It is believed Mrs Patroni closed Patroni’s Guest Home and left Gwalia in 1956.

Conservation work was done in 1987 under a National Estate Grants Program and during the 1995/96 Adopt-a-Cottage project.

Major conservation work funded by the Shire of Leonora, with assistance from the Federal Government’s 2012/13 T-Qual Grant for Tourism Quality Products, was completed on 12 September 2013.