It is 13 kilometres (8 miles) southwest of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Canterbury-Bankstown.

Land grants were made as early as 1810 for agricultural purposes, on the northern side of Punchbowl Road (towards Strathfield).

Although several applications were made over the years, it was not until 1936 that the postal inspector reported in favor of a non-official post office.

His report read: "...There is a business centre here consisting of sixteen shops, one garage and one Hotel.

[2] The Department of Lands advised that it had no objection to the use of the name "Belfield" and approval was subsequently given for the establishment of a non-official post office.

The official boundaries for Belfield were re-gazetted during August 1993 together with all other suburbs in the Canterbury Local Government Area, and again in 1995.

The most common other countries of birth were Lebanon 6.0%, China 5.9%, South Korea 3.3%, Italy 2.6% and Greece 2.0%.

Other languages spoken at home included Arabic 15.4%, Mandarin 5.9%, Greek 5.1%, Italian 4.7% and Cantonese 4.4%.