Land originally granted to William Loftes in 1850. In 1851 he was granted a publican's licence which he held until 1859. The Inn was apparently never licenced again. Since that time, the building has been used as farm dwelling.
The old One Tree Hill Inn was first licensed in 1851 and closed eight years later. It is believed locally that the inn served travellers on the road to the Barossa goldfields but the first record of gold discovery was in 1868, sometime after the closure of the inn. William Loftes, the first publican and the holder of the license when the inn closed met with a mysterious death two years later. Loftes disappeared while riding home in a drunken state from the Mill Inn at Gawler one Sunday. His remains were found in the South Para River three months later. It was never proven whether it was a drunken accident or suspicious circumstances as Loftes was believed to be carrying a substantial amount of money at the time. He had taken out a mortgage on his land one month before his death and so his son Robert had to repurchase the land.
