Bell - Culture and History

The town was named after Archibald Bell, Jr. who also gave his name to Mount Bell, Bell Range, Bell's Line of Road and Bilpin which was originally named 'Belpin'. The reason for this enthusiastic desire to enshrine Bell's name in just about everything is because, in 1823, Archibald Bell, Jr, when he was only nineteen, crossed the mountains along what was to become Bell's Line of Road. This was not a solitary achievement. Sensibly he used the knowledge of the local Aborigines who had been crossing the mountains for tens of thousands of years. Although the mountains has been crossed at Katoomba a decade earlier, there was still no satisfactory route through the mountains from Richmond at this time. Bell reached Mount Tomah on his first attempt but could not find a way across the mountains. On his second attempt he followed the ridge across to the present site of Bell and from there made his way down into Hartley Vale where he joined up with Cox's road.

Today Bell is really nothing more than a small village where travellers, eager to travel across to Mount Victoria and Katoomba, turn left.