'If we do nothing, the market will die': Fury at heritage ruling

The Queen Victoria Market will die a slow death unless major renovation works to heritage sheds are allowed to proceed, says Melbourne’s acting lord mayor and a prominent economist who wrote the business case for its redevelopment.

Melbourne City Council has vowed to appeal Heritage Victoria’s decision to reject an application to temporarily remove four of the market's 140-year-old sheds.

A diagram showing the council's plan to put services for market traders below ground. Since this image was created, the council has decided to dig down further - to three levels, to also include parking for 220 cars.Credit: Melbourne City Council

The council wants to remove the sheds, dig three levels of parking and storage areas for traders beneath them, then return the refurbished structures to where they have stood since 1878.

But Heritage Victoria on Tuesday told council officers it did not accept assurances that the sheds could be returned in their original condition.

Acting Lord Mayor Arron Wood at the market on Tuesday.Credit: Eddie Jim

The heritage body, a state government authority, also believes the fabric of the 19th-century market would be irreversibly altered should the plan go ahead.

Acting lord mayor Arron Wood said without the heritage approval in place, the council could not proceed with its plan.

“The project is absolutely predicated on the below-basement facilities – all of these things are linked,” he said.

“This refusal means we can’t remove the sheds, we can’t go underground and deliver the parking the traders wanted and the below ground facilities the traders wanted,” Cr Wood said.

“This puts in jeopardy the entire project and we will appeal this decision.”

He said there was no question the sheds could be removed, restored and returned without damage.

Economist Marcus Spiller, whose company SGS completed the business case arguing for a major redevelopment of the market, said the market's potential catchment pool of shoppers had tripled in the past 20 years.

“But the customer base has flatlined or even shrunk. If you go through the markets on any day but Saturday, you will see stalls with hessian shrouds over them – almost like coffins.”

“The place is suffering an incremental decline. If we do nothing, the market will die – it will become a skeletal remains of a once vibrant place,” Dr Spiller said.

One of the heritage sheds Melbourne City Council wants to remove, restore, and dig beneath.Credit: Pat Scale

The shed redevelopment is part of a plan to replace the market's above-ground parking with a new park. Credit: Melbourne City Council

The chair of London’s 1000-year-old Borough Market, Donald Hyslop, visited the Queen Victoria Market last year. He responded to an email from Melbourne City Council on Tuesday night about the heritage refusal, expressing his surprise.

“When we remade the market with the railway works going through between 2005 [and] 2012 we had to take all the main hall and roof structures down piece by piece, store for several years, and then put it all back together,” he wrote. He said the sheds were “better than original now but all heritage intact”.

London's Borough Market was restored without losing its heritage values.

Cr Wood said something identical could happen in Melbourne.

Heritage Victoria’s decision comes despite the council having spent more than $15 million planning the revamp of the Melbourne landmark, which attracts 10 million visitors annually.

Last April, former prime minister Paul Keating attacked the city council's plan, saying taking the sheds down and stripping their lead paint to restore them would ruin their heritage value. 

"Imagine in this day and age, [the sheds] somehow being disassembled and re-riveted. All of the patina goes. Melbourne is trying to list this as a heritage site but there will be no heritage left."

Planning Minister Richard Wynne has long been opposed to the below-ground construction part of the redevelopment plan, although he last year signed off on construction of a 40-storey apartment tower on land opposite the market’s deli hall on Elizabeth Street.

On Wednesday he said that it needed to be redeveloped, but in "a respectful way". He said removing the sheds and returning them was an option Heritage Victoria did not accept as a ‘‘respectful resolution of this issue’’.

Heritage Victoria had been reviewing the council’s application and holding discussions with the council’s heritage consultants since September last year, Mr Wynne said. ‘‘It’s not as if this has been a quick or short-term conversation. This has been going on for some months.’’

Premier Daniel Andrews said his government was supportive of the market’s redevelopment. “This is an iconic site, it's a big part of our economic activity, big part of Melbourne's history and our story as we look to the future,” Mr Andrews told reporters on Wednesday morning.

But he said Heritage Victoria’s ruling was “very clear”.

“There will need to be a fresh look taken at this; there will need to be a fresh application put forward,” he said. “I'm prepared, all of us I think are prepared, to work with Melbourne City Council to try and find a way forward on this.”

He said everyone wanted a better Queen Victoria Market.

“It's a very special place and its history is very important to us and we need to safeguard and protect the heritage of the site while at the same time finding a way to make it even better."