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History and heritage

Exterior of Queen Victoria Market building showing architectural details, yellow facade and embossed images of livestock above the entrance sign.
The Queen Victoria Market site has a long and important history. The seven-hectare site takes up two city blocks in the heart of the city north area, between the Hoddle grid and North and West Melbourne.

​​​​​​​​​​​​Queen Victoria M​​arket 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.  

Preserving heritage as part of the renewal program

​As part of the Queen Victoria Market Precinct Renewal program, we’ll preserve, acknowledge and celebrate the market site’s long history. Anyone with additional information or knowledge about the site’s heritage is encouraged to come forward, so that more stories can be documented and publically shared. 

Through the renewal program, retaining the physical heritage of the market precinct is a key consideration. The much-loved Dairy Produce Hall and Meat and Fish Halls will remain just as they are, with minor restoration and renovation works. The Elizabeth and Victoria Street terraces will also be restored. The outdoor market sheds will be carefully restored on site. 

Another key renewal project includes the transformation of the current customer car park into public open space, a more fitting acknowledgement of the area’s previous use as the Old Melbourne Cemetery. 

The renewal program will also seek to find out more about the lives of the people buried in the former cemetery and to understand more about other former historical places on the site, with archaeological works planned to investigate the sites of the former Drill Hall, and a potential Temperance Hall. 

The renewal team is committed to respectful management of the former Old Melbourne Cemetery site during works, with no or minimal subsurface disruption a priority across the cemetery precinct. Where required, archaeologists will be on site to advise, investigate and monitor all works. ​

Commemorative plaque marks campaign to save the market

​In May 2020, a plaque was installed at 133 Victoria Street to commemorate the successful campaign in the early 1970s by the Keep Victoria Market Association to save the Queen Victoria Market from demolition. 

The campaign was led by a broad coalition of community and union groups and individuals who presented a petition of more than 18,000 signatures to the Council opposing the demolition plans. It was also supported by the union movement which used black bans to prevent demolition while the matter was debated. 

In addition to saving the market from demolition, the campaign resulted in a refurbishment of the heritage sheds and the market.  It also led to the first registration of key market buildings by the National Trust, and recognition of the market as a site of heritage significance at a time when heritage protection of places in Victoria was a relatively new concept. 

Restoring and preserving the tangible and intangible heritage of the market is a key objective of the City of Melbourne’s market renewal program, and was further reinforced by the listing of the site on the National Heritage List in 2018. 

The plaque installation marks the completion of a long-standing request to give formal recognition to the significance of this campaign following collaboration between the group members, City of Melbourne and Queen Victoria Market Pty Ltd. An approval to install the plaque was issued by Heritage Victoria.

In this section

  • Old Melbourne Cemetery

    Not only has the Queen Victoria Market served the people of Melbourne continuously since at least 1878, it was previously the site of Melbourne’s first official cemetery.
  • Aboriginal heritage

    The City of Melbourne respectfully acknowledges that there are sites of cultural heritage in and around the Queen Victoria Market precinct, and recognises the tangible and intangible connection of Aboriginal people to place.
  • Key heritage plans and documents

    Find out about the key heritage reports and documents that will inform and guide the Queen Victoria Market Precinct Renewal Program.
  • National heritage listing

    The Queen Victoria Market has been added to the National Heritage List, recognising the significant place it holds in Australian history and providing further impetus for renewal and refurbishment of our nation’s iconic fresh produce market.
  • Research explores what makes the market special

    In 2017 RMIT researchers immersed themselves in the life of the market – interviewing and observing traders, workers, visitors and shoppers to investigate the intangible values of the market.
  • Archaeological investigations

    Through the Queen Victoria Market Precinct Renewal program we have an opportunity to uncover and share the forgotten stories of early Melbourne.
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