Belmont is the place where Reverend L E Threlkeld first established his Aboriginal mission called Bahtahbah Mission. The mission was closed about 1830, and the land reverted back to the crown. The area was settled again in the 1860s. At this time a coal mining syndicate was formed by Maurice Marks, G A
Lloyd, B Lunn, R Kirklady, R and A Anderson and J Bart. The area still
bears the names of some of these settlers. The first school was opened in 1874. The Public School was built near the old mission site, which is now part of the Belmont Institute of TAFE.
Clift family house, Belmont, NSW, 20 February 1896. From the Ralph Snowball/Norm Barney Collection, University of Newcastle, Cultural Collections