Queen Victoria Market is much more than a market place. The site has been and continues to be of significance to many different people for many reasons. It is one of the great nineteenth century markets in Victoria and the only one surviving from a group of important central markets built in Melbourne during that era.
From its beginnings as Melbourne’s chief wholesale market, through to its successful reinvention as a retail market in the 1970s, Queen Victoria Market has played an important role in the economic and social history of the city.
It is the largest, most concentrated, continually trading place reserved for small independently operated businesses in Australia.
It is a critical element in the story of early Melbourne’s development and to this day continues to play a central role in the city’s cultural, business and social life.
The Queen Victoria Market was formally accepted for inclusion onto the Victorian Heritage Register in 1989 and the National Heritage List in 2018.
Not only has the market served the people of Melbourne continuously since at least 1878, it was previously the site of Melbourne’s first official cemetery, from 1837 and 1854.
The market site is also an important Aboriginal cultural place. It is part of the land of the Kulin Nations and includes an Aboriginal burial area of the former cemetery, which is specifically recognised under the Aboriginal Heritage Act as an Aboriginal historic place.