Grovedale is a southern

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...

, Victoria,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. At the , Grovedale had a population of 14,869.

History

Toponymy

The locality was originally named ''Germantown'' because several families of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

origin had settled there in 1849, with the German community expanding in the following decades. German Cottage, a house from this period located on the

Surf Coast Highway Surfcoast Highway (and its northern section within Geelong as Torquay Road, and its southern section as Surf Coast Highway) is a semi-rural highway in Victoria, Australia, connecting the city of Geelong with the coastal town of Torquay. The hi ...

(Torquay Road), is listed on the

Victorian Heritage Register The Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) lists places deemed to be of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria, Australia. It has statutory weight under the Heritage Act 2017. The Minister for Planning is the responsible Minister. ...

. Following the outbreak of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, and particularly after the sinking of the ''

RMS Lusitania RMS ''Lusitania'' was a United Kingdom, British ocean liner launched by the Cunard Line in 1906. The Royal Mail Ship, the world's largest passenger ship until the completion of her sister three months later, in 1907 regained for Britain the ...

'' by a German

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

in May 1915, there was agitation to change the name of the area. A well-attended meeting at Germantown on 31 May 1915 agreed to recommend to the South Barwon Shire Council that the name should be changed to Marlborough or Cornwall. Other names suggested were Devon, Dennys and Grovedale. On 2 July the Council chose the name Cornwall. However the Commonwealth

Postmaster-General's Department The Postmaster-General's Department (PMG) was a department of the Australian federal government, established at Federation in 1901, whose responsibilities included the provision of postal and telegraphic services throughout Australia. It was ...

and the Victorian Lands Department rejected the choice, because it duplicated an existing name elsewhere in Australia. Consequently, the council decided to recommend

Bridges A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somet ...

or Grovedale as replacement names, with the preference being for Grovedale, which was the name of a property in the district bought by Alexander Pennell in 1847. The Post Office was renamed Grovedale on 1 March 1916.

Settlement

A Post Office had originally opened on 21 January 1860. 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, and the area became Victoria's largest wine-producing region, particularly thanks to the efforts of

migrants. In the early 1870s the region's vines became infested with the

phylloxera Grape phylloxera is an insect pest of grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'' (Fitch 1855) belongs to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bugs); orig ...

aphid Aphids are small sap-sucking insects in the Taxonomic rank, family Aphididae. Common names include greenfly and blackfly, although individuals within a species can vary widely in color. The group includes the fluffy white Eriosomatinae, woolly ...

and were pulled out.

Postwar housing boom

Residential expansion commenced in Grovedale in the early 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. Grovedale was formerly the southern suburban boundary for Geelong prior to the development of the Armstrong Creek Growth Area. The suburb previously included land south of the

Warrnambool railway line The Warrnambool railway line is a railway serving the south west of Victoria, Australia. Running from the western Melbourne suburb of Newport, Victoria, Newport through the cities of Geelong and Warrnambool, the line once terminated at the coa ...

; however, on 23 February 2012, the state government made significant changes to the suburban boundaries in the area, creating two new suburbs ( Armstrong Creek and Charlemont) on the east side of the Surf Coast Highway, and extending the boundaries of Mount Duneed to the railway on the west side of the highway. The southern boundary of the suburb now ends at the railway line.

Transport

Grovedale is located on the Surfcoast Highway that links the suburb to the centre of Geelong, as well as to the coastal town of

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignt ...

. Pioneer Road runs east west through Grovedale, the road not being completed eastward across the Waurn Ponds Creek until the late 1980s. Public transport to the area is provided by

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

es operated by Benders Buslines and McHarrys Buslines, on routes to the Geelong city centre travelling via

Deakin University Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974 with antecedent history since 1887, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia and a founding father of Australian Fede ...

, Belmont,

Highton Highton is a residential suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia. With views across Geelong, Corio Bay and the surrounding region, Highton is located along the banks of the Barwon River and across the rolling Barrabool Hills. The Barwon River ...

and

Waurn Ponds Waurn Ponds is a mainly residential southern suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The suburb is bounded by Rossack Drive, Princes Highway, the Geelong to Warrnambool railway, Reservoir Road, Draytons Road, Pigdons Road, Deakin University and ...

. 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 decision was instead made to proceed with a new station at nearby

Marshall Marshall may refer to: Places Australia *Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria ** Marshall railway station Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Is ...

, with the new Marshall station opened in 2005. A subsequent decision to extend the line further was made in the 2010s, with the new Waurn Ponds station opening on October 12, 2014.

References