Belmont and Belmont Shire

Belmont, a former shire, and now a residential and rural/residential suburb, is 12 km south-east of central Brisbane, although travel by Old Cleveland Road or the Gateway Motorway is considerably further. It was named after an estate (1870s) owned by August Bernecker, set in a fertile landscape along the Bulimba Creek. Bernecker Street, Carina, was once part of Belmont.

The shire extended from Boundary Road, Coorparoo, to Capalaba, and the Bulimba Creek flowed through it, slightly west of its mid point. The Belmont primary school on Old Cleveland Road, a kilometre east of the creek, was opened in 1876. (The school is now in the suburb of Carindale).

Local government began with the Bulimba division (1879), which in 1888 lost its eastern and western parts as Coorparoo and Kianawah (Wynnum) Shires. The remaining part constituted the shire of Belmont, although it was called Bulimba until 1894. Its area was 27 sq miles. The shire's main village was Carina, which held a primary school (1917) and the shire offices. In the absence of actual or likely public transport, the shire financed a tramline from Belmont to Norman Park, via Seven Hills, in 1912. It failed to induce saleable land subdivisions and ran at a loss. In 1925 the Greater Brisbane Council absorbed Belmont Shire, and the tramline closed the following year. In addition to dairy and poultry farmers, there were two wool scourers, a fellmongery and a tannery.

The district of Belmont had a north-west boundary at the junction of Creek and Old Cleveland Roads and ran west to Capalaba. In 1948 its western side very nearly gained a long-wanted public transport link when the Old Cleveland Road tramline was extended from Camp Hill to Mayfield Road, Carina. A trolley bus (1960) completed the journey to Carina. That, along with increasing private car ownership, brought about residential development, creating the suburb of Carindale. Scrub Road and, later, the Gateway Motorway (1986) created an obvious boundary, truncating Belmont to an area east of the motorway. On its other borders, Chandler, Burbank and Mackenzie were created.

Belmont has a residential area in its north-west, adjoining the motorway and Tingalpa. There are a hotel and a small drive-in shopping centre. In other parts there are the Grassdale Country Club, two rifle ranges and Mount Petrie (170m). Its early census populations were: