The low-cycle fatigue behaviour of a SiC-particulate-reinforced Al-Si cast alloy with two different volume fractions has been investigated from a series of strain-control led fatigue tests with zero and nonzero tensile mean strains. The composites including the unreinforced matrix alloy, exhibited cyclic hardening behaviour, with more pronounced strain-hardening for the composites with a higher volume fraction of the SiC particles. For the tensile mean strain tests, the initial high tensile mean stress relaxed to zero for the ductile Al-Si alloy, resulting in no influence of the tensile mean strain on the fatigue life of the matrix alloy. However, tensile mean strain for the composite caused tensile mean stresses and reduced fatigue life. The pronounced effects of mean strain on the low-cycle fatigue life of the composite compared to the unreinforced matrix alloy were attributed to the initial large prestrain and non-relaxing high tensile mean stress in the composite with very limited ductility and Cyclic plasticity. Fatigue damage parameter using strain energy, density efficiently accounted for the mean stress effects. Predicted fatigue life using the damage parameter correlated fairly well with the experimental life within a factor of 3. Also, the fatigue damage parameter indicated the inferior life in the low-cycle regime and superior life in the high-cycle regime for the composite, compared to the unreinforced matrix alloy.