Belair was established during the settlement of Adelaide as a source of timber. Parts of Belair have views of the city of Adelaide, the Adelaide Plains and the coast. Belair National Park is one of the major attractions of the suburb, and Windy Point provides a 230 degree panorama making it one of the best lookouts over the city, the plains and the coast.
Recreational facilities
is a very popular location for feeding ducks, cycling, walking or horseriding through the bush, enjoying the native flora and fauna, having barbecues and playing social games of tennis, football, soccer and 'backyard' cricket. Belair Country Club hosts an 18-hole public golf course adjacent to the National Park. Belair is also a very popular area for mountain bikers. There are bike trails not just in the National Park but throughout Belair, and steep tracks down the hills face to railway stations on the Belair line, which terminates adjacent to the National Park.
History
The origin of the name 'Belair' appears uncertain. Gustav Ludewigs, who subdivided the area, may have named the suburb after Bel Air, Martinique, being his wife Maria's birthplace. Another theory is that it was named in 1849 after Eugene Bellairs, a Government surveyor who lived in the area. A Belair Post Office opened on 3 April 1859; it was relocated in 1881 to near its present position and the original office renamed Blackwood.
Belair Primary School opened in 1957 or 1958. It consisted of two campuses, a junior primary (originally known as "Belair Infant School", and later renamed to "Belair Junior Primary School", and a separate upper primary school. The junior primary campus closed in 1997, and since then Belair Schools consists of a co-located junior school and an upper primary school situated on Main Road, Belair. The schools have Eco-school status, and follow the International Baccalaureate syllabus. In 1999 the schools twinned with Momoyama Elementary School in Kyoto, Japan. Every two years, during May, a group of students and staff travel to Kyoto. In the alternate year, Momoyama students and staff visit Belair during August. These visits have become an integral part of the schools' Japanese language and cultural programme. St John's Grammar School also has a junior campus adjacent to the railway station and senior campus located towards the west of the suburb. Actors Ben Nicholas and Sarah Snook are some of its more famous graduates.
There are numerous mountain biking tracks throughout Belair, and the City of Mitcham is expanded and formalised these tracks in the early 21st century. In November 2010 a two-metre-wide bitumen track opened between Caroline Avenue, Belair, and Beagle Terrace, Lynton, providing a trail for cyclists as an alternative to the dangerous curves of Belair Road. There are other tracks leading down to Lynton Train Station and Mitcham.
