This illustrated anthology of the oral histories of the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne takes you behind the counters to reveal intimate views of the market’s unique way of life. Drawn from more than a hundred and eighty interviews, and featuring beautiful and atmospheric photography throughout, Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market explores the values and ideas within the city’s heart.

‘When the stallholders have gone home at the end of the day of trade, you can shut your eyes, you look up the aisles and it could be 1923, it could be 1953, it could be 1973…I have memories of people who are no longer here. It’s the people that make the market. It’s the people.‘

Melbourne’s Vic Market is an Australian heritage gem, a place for everyone. For over a century and a half, generations of small traders have embraced the opportunities to make a living at this iconic market, cultivating healthy competition and innovation in an evolving cultural melange.