It is endemic to a restricted distribution within the Carrington Falls area of New South Wales, Australia and grows on moist, sandy soils in riparian environments.

It is a dense, spreading shrub with divided leaves with more or less linear, sharply-pointed lobes, and clusters of purplish-cream to mauve-pink flowers that turn pink and darken as they age.

[4] Grevillea rivularis was first formally described in 1975 by Lawrie Johnson and Donald McGillivray in the journal Telopea from specimens collected in 1960 at Carrington Falls by Ernest Francis Constable.

[2][8] The specific epithet (rivularis) derives from the Latin word meaning "belonging to a small river or stream," referring to the species' habitat.

As the common name would suggest, it is restricted to the Carrington Falls area north of Kangaroo River which encompasses Budderoo National Park.

[5][9][12][14] Associated species include other Proteaceae such as woolly tea tree (Leptospermum lanigerum), small-fruit hakea (Hakea microcarpa), Persoonia and Banksia, trees and shrubs such as coachwood (Ceratopetalum apetalum), black wattle (Callicoma serratifolia), scented paperbark (Melaleuca squarrosa) and common heath (Epacris impressa), Gleichenia ferns and numerous species of rushes and sedges.

[5][1] Since it was first described in 1975, Grevillea rivularis has been widely cultivated on the east cost of Australia, from as far north as Rockhampton in Queensland to as far south as Tasmania, as well as abroad in the United States.

[4][6][14] Plants are propagated from seed given peeling or scarification treatment,[13] from new growth cuttings or grafted onto the standard Grevillea robusta rootstock, which has proven compatible in the long term.