The area around Belmont was inhabited by the Awabakal People. Traces of middens of shellfish, axe grinding grooves and place names can still be seen here. In 1825 Reverend Lancelot Edward Threlkeld established a mission at Belmont.

He established small scale farming of wheat and Indian Corn and employed the local Aboriginal people to help him. While doing so, Threlkeld recorded the language of the Awabakal and produced the first serious works on Aboriginal language, its grammar, usage, and relation to other Aboriginal languages. The mission closed after a few years and Threlkeld moved to the Western side of Lake Macquarie.

Thomas Williamson [ 1833 - 80 ] was born in the northernmost island of Unst, Shetland Islands in a town called Belmont. He was the third settler in the Lake Macquarie area and in 1865 selected 100 acres, including Bahtahbah [ site of Rev. Threlkeld's old Aboriginal mission ] to settle. On the rising land leading to the top of the hill, near the corner of Walter and Victoria Streets [ and what became, many years later the Infants School ] he built a large residence to serve as a guest house, naming it after the town of his birth " Belmont" House. It is thought the village which grew up around it may have assumed the name from the house. As the village grew, some of the streets were named after his children: Ada St leads down to the yacht club, Maude St comes from Cahill Oval down to the water at the baths. Walter St would have come right past the old Belmont house whilst Alick [ named for Alexander ] and Ernest Sts marked the eastern boundary of the original acreage. Thomas St, outside the shopping centre, is named after Thomas Williamson himself. On the eastern side of the old house Williamson planted a vineyard, facing towards the lagoon, and to the north an orchard including banana trees.

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