The Beginning....

The advent which set in motion factors leading to the establishment of Belmont, took place quite by accident. In July 1800 a small vessel named the “Martha” engaged in the sealing trade, was driven inshore at the point which we know as Swansea Heads. Reid, being master of the vessel, mistook the entrance of the lake for the opening of the Hunter River. A portion of a wharf built by him still exists at this place, which is still called “Reid’s Mistake”.

In 1825 Reverend L E Threlkeld sought a place on Lake Macquarie for a mission station. He chose the locality of Belmont. He chose it as it was one of the closest points on the Lake to Newcastle while still being not too distant from the aborigines’ rallying point at Reid’s Mistake. Threlkeld decided to build on a spot situated approximately fifty yards from the present Pacific Highway, Belmont, right in the centre of Victoria Street. Towards the end of 1826 Threlkeld and his family moved into their new home, which he called “Bah-tah-bah” The name being taken from the Awabakal tongue which means “a Hill near the lake”.

The Bahtahbah Mission Station at Belmont became the first European habitation at the lake, with Threlkeld’s rough dray track across the hills from Newcastle, becoming the first road into the lake area. The tendencies set in motion by the lives of William Reid and Lancelot Edward Threlkeld had now culminated in a germ of settlement out of which Belmont as we know it today was to emerge.

The mission at Belmont was closed in 1830 and so Threlkeld built a mission house on the site of the present Toronto hotel and the property he named “Ebenezer”.

The details of his work have not direct bearing on the development of Belmont, but we all should deeply appreciate that his life and work had been used as a means to promote that long era of progressive development, the fruits of which were are enjoying today.

The mission house at Belmont was pulled down in 1833, and the 10,000 acres were revered to the Crown. In the first few years of Belmont’s beginnings there was no great wish for land; however by 1870 a small village had arisen close to the lake shore.