| Grovedale Geelong, Victoria |
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Looking south towards Grovedale from Highton |
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Grovedale
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| Population: | 13,186 (2006)[1] | ||||||||||||
| LGA: | City of Greater Geelong | ||||||||||||
| State District: | South Barwon | ||||||||||||
| Federal Division: | Corangamite | ||||||||||||
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Grovedale is a mainly residential southern suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia.
The suburb is bounded by the Waurn Ponds Creek, Rossack Drive, Boundary Road and Barwarre Road.
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It was originally named Germantown due to several families of Lutheran German origin who arrived in 1849 and the community expanded during the 1860s.
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.[2] The Post Office was renamed on 1 March 1916.[3]
A Post Office had opened on 21 January 1860.[3] There were also two hotels, two flour mills, two tanneries and four wool-washing businesses.
The hilly country and volcanic soil were ideal for orchards and vineyards. The area earned a significant reputation for its bad smell and was Victoria's largest wine-producing region, thanks to the efforts of Swiss migrants.
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.
A Grovedale East Post Office opened in 1996 near the Surf Coast Highway.[3]
By 2010 development had commenced on the last clear land on the eastern side of the highway, with that part of Grovedale now approaching full development. The section of the locality south of the Warrnambool railway line is part of the large Armstrong Creek Growth Area with development beginning in 2010.[4]
A German cottage built in 1854 still stands on the Surfcoast Highway.[2]
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 late 1980s.[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]
The town has an Australian Rules football team competing in the Geelong Football League.