Stories from early settlers in the area tell of how the local indigenous people used to hunt kangaroo by driving them through the bushy peninsula, down the hill to Peacock Point at the east end, where they were killed.

A year later, Balmain transferred his entire holding to settle a debt to John Borthwick Gilchrist before returning to Scotland.

In 1814 the adjacent homestead of Birchgrove was sold to Roland Warpole Loane, a merchant and settler descended from a family of English landlords.

This was satisfied by the dock owners selling small blocks of land to entrepreneurs who then built tiny cottages and rented them to the workers.

From the bottom of the shafts a decline led down to a seam of coal situated under the harbour between Ballast Point and Goat Island.

[10] By 1930 the colliery owners had given up and it had been taken over by the Balmain Coal Contracting Company, established by the Miner's Federation[11] to keep the pit operational, to no avail as disputes continued.

He purchased a small tug and barge and secured a contract to remove the mine tailings, which he on sold to local councils as fill for a handsome profit.

Balmain's desirability to the middle class was due in part to its waterfront location and proximity to Sydney's CBD.

[24] Darling Street, Balmain's main thoroughfare, features boutique shops, quality restaurants and cafes alongside old drinking establishments.

Sections of Balmain were to be demolished to make for the North-West Expressway but this was prevented after green bans were placed by the NSW Builders Labourers Federation.

Due to the very steep incline at the bottom of the street, the trams used a complex 'dummy' counterweight system constructed under the road surface.

Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating commented on the suburb's gentrification by using the term "Basket weavers of Balmain".

In the mid-1960s Balmain was the setting for the popular Seven Network situation comedy series My Name's McGooley, What's Yours?, starring Gordon Chater, John Meillon and Judi Farr.

[33] Balmain was the setting for the 1994 Australian film The Sum of Us, which starred Jack Thompson, John Polson and Russell Crowe.

[34] The former Pacific Hotel (from 2019, now converted into a residential property) - as well as several other locations in Balmain - were used extensively as the set of the Australian television soap opera, E Street.

Players lost fighting in World War I forced the club to merge with the Glebe "Dirty Reds" RUFC in 1919, to form the Glebe-Balmain RFC.

[36] It did so without giving up its long-held traditions, the scarlet jumpers of Glebe and its world-famous tag, "The Dirty Reds" and the black and gold of Balmain, colours still worn proudly by today's players in their socks.

In 2015 they qualified for the Australia-wide FFA Cup Round of 32 and were drawn against A-League club Melbourne Victory FC in which they were defeated 6–0 in front of 5,000 fans at Leichhardt Oval.

The great Illawarra sculling champion Bill Beach had a close association with the club and wore their black and gold colours in competition.

The post-industrial gentrification of Balmain has resulted in a suburb of considerable charm and interest where the modest, pretty houses command high prices.

However, Balmain still retains a diverse mix of residents due to the Housing Commission unit blocks in the suburb.

[38][39] Much of the suburb is a heritage conservation area and creative design is required to modernise the Victorian and Edwardian housing stock.