National Heritage Assessment of the Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne

National Heritage Assessment of the Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne

The National Heritage List

Australia’s National Heritage List comprises places of outstanding heritage significance to Australia. Currently there are over 100 places of outstanding heritage value on the list, including the Sydney Opera House, Port Arthur Historic Site, BudjBim National Heritage Landscape, Cheetup Rock Shelter, Great Barrier Reef, and Yea Flora Fossil Site.

Many places within Melbourne are already included in the National Heritage List, including the Royal Exhibition Building, Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Rippon Lea House and Gardens, and Flemington Racecourse.

Assessment of the Queen Victoria Market

The Australian Heritage Council is currently considering the Queen Victoria Market for inclusion in the National Heritage List. The Council considers that in particular, the market is important to Australia as representative of a nineteenth century market and the key role these markets played in Australia’s history. In addition, the research potential that lies in the Old Melbourne Cemetery, which was located at the market site and still contains substantial evidence below ground, is also considered of potential national level importance.

What would National Heritage listing mean?

National Heritage listing is an acknowledgement of the importance of a place. It does not change land tenure or ownership. If included in the National Heritage List, the National Heritage values of the listed place will be protected under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).

Proposed National Heritage values

There are nine National Heritage List criteria (a-i). The Australian Heritage Council has proposed that the Queen Victoria Market might have National Heritage values under criteria (c) and (d). The full list of criteria is available on the Department of the Environment and Energy’s website at:

(c) The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Australia's natural or cultural history.

The Queen Victoria Market may be of national significance for its research potential as the site of the Old Melbourne Cemetery. As an early colonial multi-denominational and Aboriginal cemetery which represents the founding population of a major state capital, it offers rare potential for study into matters such as the diet, lifestyle, wealth, pathology and burial customs of the full cross-section of early Melbourne society.

The anticipated number of burials that remain at the site make it the largest single example of an early 19th century colonial cemetery in Australia, and in particular, one that contains a population not founded as a convict settlement. Although the site has been disturbed and a number of burials exhumed over time, numerous investigations have demonstrated that the level of disturbance is less than at comparable sites and that there is a relative prevalence of complementary documentary evidence, making it the pre-eminent example of such a site in Australia.

Features expressing this value include the sub-surface remains of the entire Queen Victoria Market site, the memorial to John Batman, the remaining section of the cemetery wall, the results of earlier archaeological investigations and in the existent burial records, particularly those held at StJames Old Cathedral.

(d) The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of Australia's cultural places.

The Queen Victoria Market demonstrates the principal characteristics of a metropolitan produce market in nineteenth century Australia. Established in 1878, the Market demonstrates the importance of fresh produce markets to Colonial settlements, and the way people accessed fresh produce at the time. The Market played an important role in the wholesale trade of fruit and vegetables, and provided opportunities for recently arrived migrants. It is representative of the huge changes that were to come in transport, science and communications, which have since revolutionised the distribution of fresh produce in Australia’s metropolitan areas. Developments such as refrigeration, the widespread use of cars and trains, electricity and improved hygiene have all influenced food distribution in Australia, and are changes evidenced at the Queen Victoria Market.

The Queen Victoria Market represents the transitioning of simplistic relationships in food distribution to new globalised patterns of food supply and distribution, including the emergence of supermarkets as predominant produce retailers. With this, Australia has seen increased variety and availability of produce, emergence of marketing and retailing as important factors in food sales, improved food safety and hygiene, and a distancing in the relationship between consumer and grower. The Queen Victoria Market represents the importance of produce markets in nineteenth century Australia, and the important role fresh produce markets have played in the development of Australia as an urbanised nation.

The Queen Victoria Market continues to operate today as a city produce and general market, and exhibits a high degree of authenticity in its practices, which provide a tangible link to their origins in the nineteenth century.

Features expressing these values include: the collection of sheds and their functional arrangement in upper and lower markets, Market Halls including the Meat Hall and Dairy Produce Hall, the Franklin Street Stores, the Elizabeth Street and Victoria Street terraces, fittings and elements of the Dairy Produce Hall designed for food display, the façade and other elements of the Meat Hall demonstrating early refrigeration and butchery practice, remnant original gate with municipal emblem and Dairy Produce Hall arch. The Market's continued operation on its original site provides further representation of these values.

How can I make a submission?

The assessment of National Heritage values under the EPBC Act requires that all practicable steps are taken to advise owners, occupiers and Indigenous people with rights and/or interests in the place and provide the opportunity for them to comment in writing on whether the place should be considered for inclusion in the NationalHeritage List.

Please provide your written comments by 5:00 PM AEST on Friday 14 July 2017 by post to:

Australian Heritage Council
GPO Box 787
CANBERRA ACT 2601

Or by email to:

What is the next step?

Following the close of the submission period, the Australian Heritage Council will give a report on the heritage values to the Australian Government Minister for the Environment and Energy. The Minister will decide whether to include the place in the National Heritage List taking into account the Australian Heritage Council’s report and submissions collected through this consultation process. The Minister may also seek, and have regard to, information or advice from any source.

Where can I get more information on the National Heritage List?

Information about the National Heritage List, the assessment criteria and other places on the list can be found at:

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