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. A Post Office h
ad opened on 21 January 1860.[3] There were also two hotels, two flour mills, two tanneries and four wool-washing businesses. 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.
