Walk through these gates and you're stepping into 150 years of Melbourne's beating heart. The story begins in 1837 when this exact spot hosted Melbourne's first official cemetery, where early settlers were laid to rest. But by the 1850s the city had outgrown that purpose. In 1854 the cemetery closed and the ground was cleared for something new — something that would feed a growing city. The Melbourne Town Council envisioned a market here, and in March 1859 they officially claimed this eastern block for that purpose. The first permanent buildings started rising in 1869. The Meat Market building, which still stands today, was constructed that year and represents the oldest surviving structure on the site. By 1874 the market had transformed into a retail operation for meat and produce, with new sheds built specifically for fruit and vegetable traders. Then came the official opening on March 20, 1878 — the day Queen Victoria Market was born. For the next century it thrived as Melbourne's primary wholesale market, the place where growers brought their harvest and traders negotiated prices that would supply the entire state. But by the 1960s trouble was brewing. Growers complained of suspicious price fixing and corruption in the wholesale section, leading to a Royal Commission investigation. The real crisis came in the 1970s when developers saw profitable redevelopment potential — they wanted to demolish the market and build a trade centre, office and hotel complex. Public outcry saved it. Melburnians fought to protect their market, leading to its National Trust classification in 1970. That decision preserved one of the only original Victorian-era major markets still operating anywhere in Australia.