Queen Victoria Market
Encyclopedia
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and at around seven hectares (17 acres) is the largest open air market in the Southern Hemisphere
Southern Hemisphere
The Southern Hemisphere is the part of Earth that lies south of the equator. The word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' or "half sphere"...
. The Market is significant to Melbourne's culture and heritage and has been listed on the Victorian Heritage Register
Victorian Heritage Register
The Victorian Heritage Register lists places of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria, Australia. It has statutory weight under the Heritage Act 1995 which establishes Heritage Victoria as the permit authority...
. The Market is named after Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
who ruled the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, from 1837 to 1901.
The Queen Victoria Market is the only surviving 19th century market in the Melbourne central business district. There were once three major markets in the Melbourne CBD, but two of them, the Eastern Market
Eastern Market, Melbourne
The Eastern Market was established in 1847 on the corner of Exhibition and Bourke Streets, Melbourne, Australia. The first incarnation of the market was intended to be the city's principal fresh produce market, but it had been anticipated by the newly opened Queen Victoria Market, which quickly...
and Western Market
Western Market, Melbourne
The Western Market was established in December 1841 on a site bounded by Market, Collins and William Streets, and Flinders Lane. The market was Melbourne's first official fruit and vegetable market but like the Eastern Market its popularity was succeeded by the Queen Victoria Market. It traded for...
, both opened before the Queen Victoria, closed in the 1960s. It also forms part of an important collection of surviving Victorian markets which includes the inner suburban Prahran Market
Prahran Market
The Prahran Market is one of the premier fresh food markets in Melbourne, Australia. It has existed on its present site in Commercial Road, South Yarra, some 200 metres from Chapel Street, for over 125 years. The market offers a variety of stalls and shops offering fresh fruit and vegetables, meat,...
and South Melbourne Market
South Melbourne Market
The South Melbourne market is located in South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It began operating in 1867.The market has recently undergone an upgrade, which includes a new design and refurbishment....
.
History
Starting as a small market to the east of the city in the 1850s, it gradually expanded into space made available by the closure of the old Melbourne Cemetery west of Queen Street and north of Franklin Street. The reinternment of human remains from the closure of the cemeteryCemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
caused a great deal of controversy at the time. As there were about 10,000 burials on the site, there still remain approximately 9,000 people buried under the sheds and car park of the Queen Victoria Market. Every time work is carried out at the market, bones are disturbed. A memorial to these people stands on the corner of Queen Street and Therry Street. The Queen Victoria Market was officially opened on 20 March 1878. The Market was originally wholesale and retail fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
and vegetable
Vegetable
The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
s, but has been retail since the wholesale market in Footscray Road was opened in 1969.
Attempts to close the market in the early 1970s were scuttled by bans conducted by the Builder Labourers' Federation and community groups.
The market was once known as a thriving underground pirated goods centre. A massive crackdown in 1997 has helped to clean up the market's image, but has also resulted in an increase in prices for these types of goods.
In 2003, the roofs of the market were equipped with 1,328 solar photovoltaic panels, covering 2000 square metres and generating 252,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, the largest such renewable energy installation in the City of Melbourne
City of Melbourne
The City of Melbourne is a Local Government Area in Victoria, Australia, located in the central city area of Melbourne. The city has an area of 36 square kilometres and has an estimated population of 93,105 people. The city's motto is "Vires acquirit eundo" which means "She gathers strength as she...
. The grid has been considered as the largest urban grid-connected solar photovoltaic installation in the Southern Hemisphere upon completion.
Today
Today, the Market is a major Melbourne tourist destination, offering a variety of fruit and vegetables, meatMeat
Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
, poultry
Poultry
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...
and seafood
Seafood
Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...
, gourmet and deli foods as well as specialty delicacies. It also has a large non-food related market, selling a diverse range of clothing
Clothing
Clothing refers to any covering for the human body that is worn. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies...
, shoes, jewellery
Jewellery
Jewellery or jewelry is a form of personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets.With some exceptions, such as medical alert bracelets or military dog tags, jewellery normally differs from other items of personal adornment in that it has no other purpose than to...
and handmade art and crafts.
The market is also known for the hot doughnut van which has operated for over half a century and become part of local tradition, being known for its jam donuts.
The Market is open every day of the week except Mondays and Wednesdays. On Wednesday evenings in the summer months, there is a night market which offers dining, bars, live entertainment and a variety of other stalls.
In January 2010, the Herald Sun
Herald Sun
The Herald Sun is a morning tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia. It is published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Limited, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation. It is available for purchase throughout Melbourne, Regional Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital...
reported that city planners wanted to transform the market into a "gourmet hub" by introducing upmarket food stalls. Lord Mayor Robert Doyle
Robert Doyle
Robert Keith Bennett Doyle is an Australian politician and the 103rd Lord Mayor of Melbourne, elected on 30 November 2008...
said he brought up the idea after visiting London's Borough Market
Borough Market
Borough Market is a wholesale and retail food market in Southwark, London, England. It is one of the largest food markets in London, and sells a large variety of foods from all over the world.-Information and History:...
, which has a "boutique" feel that could work in Melbourne.