The creek takes its name from the fourth land grant in the colony of New South Wales which was made to Phillip Schaeffer.

The source of the creek is Elizabeth Macarthur Park, Oatlands, where it flows south through Dundas, before reaching the mouth of the Parramatta River at Rydalmere.

In its upper reaches, the catchment is steeply graded with narrow valleys spilling out to a wider floodplain downstream of Victoria Road.

Vineyard Creek enters the Parramatta River from the north and to the east of the Rydalmere campus of the University of Western Sydney.

[1] The tidal limit of Vineyard Creek is located 300 metres (980 ft) upstream of the Parramatta River.