Queen Victoria Market Melbournes market

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E-Pao! Travel log - Queen Victoria Market - Melbourne's market

Queen Victoria Market - Melbourne's market

By: Chingshang *

“You are stranger here but once”

The above catch line of the market really impressed me instantly. This is an article which I prepared a week later after I landed in Melbourne for the first time. I am beginning here with an article on markets of Melbourne.

There is nothing like I know everything about the market of Melbourne and writing this article. Opinions are always welcome. The reason why I have selected market at the first instance is its similarity in its functioning with the markets of Manipur, for that matter markets anywhere in the world.

I just could not stop remembering of the then old Khwairamband bazaar which is no more, whenever I go down there to get provisions at Queen Victoria market. I always thought that we could have protected our market like the one here in Melbourne, even though there were myriads of opinion.

The similarities of the layout of the two markets are just co incidental. Both the markets are very similar with arrays of sheds, tin roofing and horizontal and vertical rows to accommodate more customers and traders. Only difference between the two may be its scale and magnitude of functioning.

For sure, there are many other aspects of differences too. Our market is strictly run by our mothers and grandmothers and known for that throughout the world. Our market is small, congested with lots of people, may be due to lack of available space and seems to more chaotic in nature. Of course it can be improved with the changing times.

Their market in Melbourne is quite big, spacious, airy and dotted with well defined facilities. But I think that is immaterial for me to discuss at this stage. Above all my article is strictly not a comparison between the markets of Manipur and markets of Melbourne. At the same time I am not writing about the many ubiquitous large supermarkets here.

The Melbourne markets primarily consist of several markets which are located in different suburbs. In this article I am particularly focusing only on two of the Melbourne markets. They are Queen Victoria markets and the south Melbourne market.

These two markets functions as livewire for the fresh food supplies for its inhabitants. There are also other markets like Prahran, Preston, Footscray etc. on other suburbs. What differentiates between most of the markets in Melbourne is their frequency of operations and timings.

In the fruit section

Queen Victoria market which is commonly known as Queen Vic has been in existence for the past 125 years. It has a long illustrious history and was formally opened on 20 March 1878. It is located in the northern end of the CBD between the corner of Queen Street and the Elizabeth Street.

Basically people of Melbourne consider it as an institution of pride rather than just a market. It is an open air market as it is not enclosed by the surrounding walls in all the sides. The market opens only for a limited period of the time and the day. It is closed on Monday and Wednesday.

On other days market functions from 6 am -2 pm on Tuesday and Thursday, 6 am -6 pm on Friday, 6am-3pm on Saturday and from 9 am-4 pm on Sunday. From November till February, the market also opens for one day at night from 5.30 pm to 10 pm. It happens to be on Wednesday. May be this is possible as the weather is more accommodating during the spring and summer seasons.

On being enquired why the market functions in this way, the simplest answer was that it suits the lifestyle of the people. Here comes the big issue of understanding the lifestyles of people which I am going to peep an insight in the forthcoming articles. Queen Victoria market is known for its fine fresh food items including the fresh vegetables, fruits, chicken, seafood and other delicatessens. More than 50% of the built up area is provided for the fresh food vendors.

Remaining 50% is shared by other merchandisers like ready made garment, gift articles, house wares, electronics, footwear and so on. Almost all the food items available for sale are sold on kilos. There is no other way of buying say half kilo, quarter kilo, one piece etc. most of the food items are in the price range of 1-7 A$ or little more than that. For example one kilo of fine apple cost about 1-2 dollar, one dozen eggs for 3 dollars, one kilo of chicken for 6 dollar, 2 kilo of rice for 2 dollar and so on.

All the articles on sale are attached with their selling price. Bargaining is not primarily done for the food items. However slight bargaining can be done for the intangible items like clothing and other items even though they are marked with their selling process. The markets seem not to be very busy on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. But it is full with people on Saturday and Sunday, lots pf hustle and bustle.

You feel like all the people of Melbourne are in the Queen Victoria market. It is full of life. You will find many buskers and entertainers too on Saturday and Sunday. I have been seeing a group of singers, well attired in Colombian costumes entertaining for the past couple of months. They are very professional and seem to be focused more on instrumentals. You can buy their CDs on the spot. Queen Victoria market provides many facilities for all the buyers and sellers.

It has well marked parking space for the customers, four ATM kiosks of different financial institutions, phone booth, toilets, trolleys and range of restaurants offering mouth watering items. I know two Spanish doughnut vans selling fresh baked doughnuts and doing a brisk business all the time. Almost all the traders in the market have their designated large almirah type trunks where they can store with their goods at the end of the market. Next day they come, open and sell their goods.

This is mainly done for traders selling intangible items. For the perishable goods sellers, it’s the other way round. Every time they have to come with the fresh food items. I feel the best day to buy the cheapest of vegetables and fruits are on Saturday afternoon towards the end of the market. You can find almost all the traders selling their goods at a throwaway price.

Because they do not want to take back their items with them again as Sunday being a more relaxed day with the customers. I still remember buying 10 kilo bag of onion for 2 dollars on a Saturday afternoon. Among the vegetable items I find, ginger and green chilly very expensive. Their prices are always all time high. One kilo of ginger normally cost around 6-10 dollars and for chilly too, more or less like ginger.

In the vegetable section

It is a huge sum as compared to other vegetable items. You can find all sorts of vegetables and fruits that are available in Manipur except few like yendem, sougri, heikak yelli etc. You will find lot of bamboo items in Chinese and Vietnamese supermarkets. I have not seen them at all even in south Asian specialty stores. Of course they do have certain vegetable which are not found in Manipur like bok choi.

All the traders get their selling items in the wholesale market which is located little away from the CBD. In the whole sale market only the license holders can go and purchase. General customers are strictly not allowed. Whole sale market yard is a big marketing shed well equipped with refrigerating and cold storage facilities to store all the items.

Meat and seafood items are sold in an enclosed marketing shed which is fully air conditioned. I find they maintained it very hygienically. The area is very clean and you never feel that you are inside the fish and meat market. They don’t generate the usual fish market smell.

Coming to the traders, you will find all sorts of people belonging to different nationalities. You will find Indians, Chinese, native Australians, Vietnamese, Greeks, French, Italians, to name a few. Melbourne is highly metropolitan and multicultural and the city is proud of it. Sometimes I feel that Melbourne is just like any other city of Asia, may be because of the strong presence of Asian communities here. You can see the true color of Melbourne in Queen Victoria market at the drop of a head.

One thing that surprises me in the market among the traders is that very few native aboriginals of Australia seem to sell the articles like world famous Boomerangs and Didgeridoos. You can easily identify that in the market. There is strong demand of their goods mainly from the many tourists visiting the market.

Boomerang on sale

Queen Victoria market is a “must see” destination for the tourists. Guided tour is available in the market by an experienced guide for the tourists for about 2 hours. Definitely this may not be an option for a person like me as you can explore the market and its stalls by yourself.

It’s a pleasure to find all the interesting things myself. One interesting thing about the market is that you can apply for a stall on any particular day to sell your goods. For that you have to get a license from the market authorities paying a fee and you have to mention your unique point of selling in the interview to get the permit.

At the current rate a permit fee for a single stall cost about 18 dollars. But the cost of fee varies on different days. It is more costly on Saturday charging for about 36 dollars. Another interesting thing which I really like is the availability of lots of information about the current events happening in Melbourne in the form of free pamphlets, brochures, postcards and magazines in the market.

They are always keeping free of charge for the people to come and collect or read in the main corner of the market in the delicatessens section. They also maintained market notice boards in different places of the market where you can get information about the happenings and up coming events in the market. The market is well maintained.

Everyday, at the end of the market, there is a thorough cleaning session with water sprays and all the piled up garbage are removed with the sewage trucks. They also installed designated carton box chipping machines to process them for recycling. I feel this is really necessary for us in Manipur too. This is an everyday routine and hence the market is spotlessly clean.

Above all they do not have anything like hawkers selling goods and services. No tea, coffee, pan and cigarette sellers are found inside the market shed. Smoking inside the public places is strictly prohibited. One thing that makes their market to maintain so well is probably the design of the market.

The roof of the market is considerably high from the ground and they used minimal poles to support the structure even though it is a contiguous array of marketing shed. Traders’ vehicles can easily move inside the marketing shed. The marketing shed do not have any raised platform for the traders to spread out their wares. They used lot of foldable tables, hangers, strings and other movable support to stall their wares.

So they pack up everything easily at the end of the day. South Melbourne market also possesses by and large similar characteristics. But it is completely enclosed and has its parking lot in the rooftop of the market yard. It was established in 1867 and their catch line of the market is “ local values since 1869”. The two markets has its dedicated websites-
www.qvm.com.au & www.southmelbournemarket.com.au

Well, I don’t know why I feel so much dear to our market after seeing their markets here. I strongly feel that we could also maintain our markets with a strong dedication and conviction for the cause of its heritage and economic significance. We are not lacking behind historically, culturally or in anything.

May be we do not possess a strong financial muscle to build the infrastructure at the moment. But money is not everything. What we really need of the hour is to think how can we promote our market and improve its functional efficiency. I think you all will not contradict me if I mention our market as the economic engine of the Manipuri society.

Yes it is true, writing, talking, telling and other associated activities are easy. But then, we still need to build a conscious effort to sustain our thinking of the society through different forms of media. Thanks all, see you in the next article.

Check out the gallery on Queen Victoria Market here.

* Chingshang, a Graduate student at University of Melbourne, contributes to e-pao.net for the first time. The writer can be contacted at rockm(at)rediffmail(dot)com . This article was webcasted on November 16th 2007.

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