Belalie North. This tiny settlement grew when the railway line from Port Pirie to Peterborough (then Petersburg) passed through here in 1880. The railway station here was the highest station in South Australia at over 2,000 feet above sea level. The next highest was Gumbowie siding between Terowie and Peterborough. Mount Lofty is a mere 1,613 feet high. A few years later the steam engines carrying goods to and from Broken Hill from 1886 struggled to climb the big hills into Belalie North from Jamestown. Several engines were required for each train. For example 1,000 ton trains from Broken Hill had to be divided into trains of no more than 470 tons. Trains pulling up the gradient to Belalie North on their way to Broken Hill were limited to 270 tons per train.

Farmers started settling the land west of the railway line in 1871 and in 1873 the first stone Methodist Church was built on donated land two miles west of the later town. This early church was used as a school until an early state school was built nearby in 1884. But the town we know of as Belalie North was created after the subdivision of Yongala station in 1902. The town was where several roads crossed each other beside the railway line and to the locals it was known as Belalie Summit. A stone Assembly Hall was built in 1908 and it then became the state school room (and the 1884 school closed) and it was used for the Methodist Church services. The old church and school to the west of Belalie North were later demolished. The 1902 town was now the focus of the community. The Assembly Hall (and school and church) was sold in 1922 to the Methodist Church as the new state school building opened behind it. The Methodists opened their new stone church next to the old hall in 1923. It was built of Gladstone freestone. The government closed Belalie North School in 1968 as the settlement was suffering great depopulation. In the previous years the railways had a station master and several railway workers based in Belalie North. In 1969 the new standard gauge railway line to Broken Hill bypassed Belalie North to avoid the steep gradients up to the summit. In preparation of that change the railways moved the workers and their houses and the weatherboard station and so the town began to die. Coincidentally 1967 was also the year in which electricity was connected to Belalie North properties. The last train passed through Belalie North in 1970.