OPPOSITION TO NEW QUEEN VICTORIA MARKET PROPOSAL

Heritage groups, community groups and individuals across Melbourne are condemning the City of Melbourne’s new plan to surround the Queen Victoria Market with three 25 – 40 storey towers. The $1.7 billion proposal, known as Gurrowa Place and announced in late June, also includes plans for a city square to be built on the market’s current southern car park.

Since the announcement, Charles Sowerwine, Chair of the RHSV Heritage Committee, has been a prominent voice in the media,  expressing his dismay in The Age and the Herald Sun. He vehemently opposes this developer-driven proposal, warning that it will irrevocably damage the very heart of the market. The Letter to the Editor, The Age Online edition, 28 June 2023, is below:

Crowding out the market

This Melbourne City Council proposal to surround the Queen Victoria Market with 25 to 40-storey towers continues council’s mismanagement of the market. The ‘‘ public space’ ’ is not a park but an event space. Council strategy is events, fast food and hospitality, which will crowd out fresh food. As a green space, the new park will be hemmed in by high towers. Following the discredited Doyle plan, the council is destroying the low-rise heritage buffer around the market. The market isn’t ‘‘ tired’’ , it just needs better support and publicity, fair treatment of traders and encouragement of a new generation of traders, including those from more recent migrations. If there is one thing the market doesn’t need, it’s more mediocre high-rise extending from Elizabeth Street.

Charles Sowerwine, chair, heritage committee, Royal Historical Society of Victoria.