Grovedale, Victoria

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Grovedale
GeelongVictoria

Looking south towards Grovedale from Highton
Population: 13,186 (2006)[1]
Postcode: 3216
Property Value: AUD $260,000 (2006)
LGA: City of Greater Geelong
Suburbs around Grovedale:
Highton Belmont Breakwater
Grovedale Marshall
Waurn Ponds

Grovedale is a mainly residential southern suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia. It was renamed from Germantown during the Great War. The suburb is bounded by the Waurn Ponds Creek, Rossack Drive, Boundary Road and Barwarre Road.

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[edit] History

Looking north over Grovedale and the Waurn Ponds Shopping Centre from Rossack Drive
Looking north over Grovedale and the Waurn Ponds Shopping Centre from Rossack Drive

Germantown was originally settled by several families of Lutheran German origin who arrived at Corio Bay in 1849. By the mid-1860s there were about 70 families of German origin. A Post Office had opened on January 21, 1860 [2] There were also two hotels, two flour mills, two tanneries and four wool-washing businesses. A German cottage built in 1854 still stands on the Surfcoast Highway.[3]

The hilly country and volcanic soil were ideal for orchards and vineyards. The area earned a significant reputation for its wine and was Victoria's largest wine-producing region, thanks to the efforts of Swiss migrants. In September 1915, after the outbreak of the first world war, the South Barwon Council changed the named to Grovedale - the name of a nearby property bought by Alexander Pennell in 1847.[3] The Post Office was renamed on March 1, 1916 [2]


Residential expansion commenced in Grovedale in the late 1960s, the first housing estates branching off the Surfcoast Highway. Later expansion throughout the 1970s to the 1990s moved to the west along Church Street, Pioneer Road, and Heyers Road. Today development has commenced on the last clear land on the eastern side of the highway, with Grovedale now approaching full development. Future growth is planned for a new suburb to the south, referred to as Armstrong Creek.[4]

[edit] Transport

Grovedale is located on the Surfcoast Highway that links the suburb the centre of Geelong, as well as to the coastal town of Torquay. Pioneer Road runs east west though Grovedale, the road not being completed eastward across the Waurn Ponds Creek until the mid 1990s.[5]

Public transport to the area is provided by buses operated by Benders Buslines and McHarrys Buslines, on routes to the Geelong city centre travelling via Deakin University, Belmont, Highton and Waurn Ponds.

The 2003–04 Victorian State Budget saw funding made available for an extension of rail services on the line between Melbourne and Geelong southwards to Grovedale. A number of options were examined, among them a new railway station at Grovedale on the Surfcoast HIghway.[6] Marshall station was opened in 2005 just outside Grovedale on the site of a closed station.[7]

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Coordinates: 38°12′S, 144°21′E