Queen Victoria Market
cnr Elizabeth & Victoria Streets, Melbourne
Trading Hours:
Tues & Thur. 6am - 2pm
Fri 6am - 6pm (general merchandise to 4 pm)
Sat 6am - 3pm
Sun 9am - 4pm
Closed - Anzac Day, Good Friday, Melbourne Cup Day, Christmas Day, Boxing
Day, New Years Day, Australia Day
The Queen Victoria Market is aptly named because she is the queen not
just of Melbourne markets but of Australian markets.
If you only have time to visit one place in Melbourne, then it should be
the Vic Market. But try to visit while all the produce stalls are operating
(Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings) because they make up the
real heart of the market.
At the Vic Market you will immediately see a representative cross-section
of Melbourne's population - its ethnic mix, dress styles, language and most
of all their attitude to life. Faced with such animated and good-natured
variety, it is hard to maintain for long that there is only one 'right' way
to do things; that there is only one self-evident religion; that enmities
from old countries should be continued in the new; that being called 'love'
or 'darl' is sexually oppressive; that the working week that just passed is
really that important.
The Vic Market brings city people in touch with earthy realities. It is
very clear that meat comes from dead animals; that vegetables are grown in
dirt; that sweat and energy is part of commerce; and that Collingwood will
win the Grand Final this year.
It is truly the melting pot of Melbourne - Toorak matrons, tattooed
labourers, politically correct families from the leafy suburbs, people from
all walks of life.
Listen to the spruiking. Much of the language comes direct from the
1930s. Or maybe earlier, when the
Sentimental Bloke of
C. J. Dennis' poems went down to the
rabbit stall at the Vic Market to meet his mate Ginger Mick ("e 'umps the
bunnies when he toils does Mick").
Buy
yourself sausage in a roll from the
Bratwurst Shop and sit outside and watch Melbourne pass by.
Particularly the children who believe that this is what life is like - only
to be surprised when they move away from Melbourne.
- Several people who have worked at the Victoria Market have gone on
to create an impact on the world stage. Name one.
- Where in the market can you see fossils that are millions of years
old?
- Sometimes breathless bloggers describe the Queen Victoria Markets
as "the largest outdoor market in the Southern Hemisphere". Of
course it isn't (and nor does that make it any less significant in White
Hat Hat's opinion). Name a larger one.
Our rating of Queen Victoria Market