Cattai is also home to a historic rural public primary school that was founded in 1886.

[8] The suburb was originally home to the Darug Indigenous Australians before being settled in the early nineteenth century.

[9][10] The locality of Cattai was the home of the Darug people who occupied a large expanse of Greater Western Sydney.

[11] The name Cattai was originally thought to have derived from an Aboriginal word with an unknown meaning.

However, it was more likely named by the First Fleet Assistant Surgeon and Magistrate Thomas Arndell who built a homestead called 'Caddie'.

Following protests by the Dharug people over the loss of their traditional hunting and fishing lands, soldiers were sent to the area in 1795.