Belmore, New South Wales

Belmore is a suburb, of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Belmore is located 15 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Canterbury.

History
Belmore is named after the fourth Earl of Belmore, Governor of New South Wales from 1868-1872. The area was known as Darkwater in its early days. Some of the first land grants in 1810 were 40.5 hectares (100 acres) to Richard Robinson east of Sharp Street and Kingsgrove Road and 60 acre to Thomas Mansfield, to the west. Francis Wild and John Sullivan were each granted 30 acre in 1823. The area was originally used for market gardens and orchards. Subdivision started after the railway came through in 1895.

The first school opened in 1903 and the post office opened in 1907. The shopping centre began developing in the 1920s and features some classic examples of art-deco architecture.

Commercial area
Belmore contains a mixture of residential, commercial and industrial developments. The main commercial area is located along Burwood Road, near Belmore railway station. Commercial and industrial developments are also located along Canterbury Road and surrounding streets.

Transport
Belmore railway station is located on the Bankstown line of the CityRail network. The line was opened in 1895 and electrified in 1926. The station at Belmore opened on 1 February 1895.

Churches and schools

 * All Saints Greek Orthodox Church, St Albans Anglican Church, St Josephs Catholic Church, Belmore Church of Christ.
 * Belmore South Public School, Belmore North Public School, Belmore Boys High School, St Josephs Primary School, All Saints Grammar.

Sport
Belmore Sports Ground is the former home ground of the National Rugby League team Canterbury Bulldogs, It is the current home ground for New South Wales Premier League team Sydney Olympic. The "Back to Belmore" campaign was established in August 2005 to upgrade Belmore Sports Grounds as a top-class sporting facility to NRL standards for the Bulldogs to stage a select number of NRL games at their traditional home ground in the long-term future.

Demographics
Belmore is one of Australia's more ethnically diverse suburbs. According to the 2001 Census, 48.5 per cent of Belmore residents (6,053 persons) stated they had been born overseas, far higher than the Australian average of 23.1 per cent. Nonetheless, the Australia-born still constituted the largest birthplace group at 41.0 per cent (5,115 persons), followed by those born in Greece at 8.1 per cent (1,007 persons), Lebanon at 5.2 per cent (651 persons) and China at 4.4 per cent (544 persons).

In terms of ethnicity, the largest group in 2001 were those claiming Greek ancestry with 16.7 per cent of responses or 2,262 persons, followed by those claiming "Australian" background at 8.0 per cent or 1,083 persons, and thirdly by those claiming English descent with 7.9 per cent or 1,069 persons.

Census data on language spoken at home in Belmore reveals that 'English only' is used by 25.6 per cent of residents (3,197 persons), followed by Greek of 17.3 per cent (2,160 persons) and Arabic which is spoken by 13.7 per cent (1,708 persons). The English language was spoken exclusively or "very well" or "well" by 71.1 per cent of the suburb's overseas-born in 2001.

According to the census, Christianity was the most followed faith in the suburb with 65.5 per cent of residents (8,170 persons) claiming to be Christian. However, Christians in the area belong to many sects, with the largest proportions being Catholic at 26.0 per cent or 3,242 persons, Orthodox with 21.4 per cent or 2,675 persons, and Anglican with 6.7 per cent or 839 persons. If Christianity is thus separated statistically, Islam overtakes Anglicanism as the third largest faith grouping and accounts for 8.5 per cent of residents or 1,063 persons; the census does not differentiate between Sunni and Shi'a.