Western Market, Collins Street, C.1879
The Western Market once occupied an entire city block at the western end of town, which is from where the city grew.
It sat within the block bounded by Collins Street at its northern front, William Street to the west, Flinders Lane to the south and appropriately, Market Street to the east.
This 1879 Charles Nettleton photo looks east, showing the Collins Street frontage. It looks toward Market Street with the Union Club Hotel on the far corner of Collins and Market Streets.
A line of cabs sit in the middle of what was still an unpaved Collins Street awaiting fares.
The market was initially established in 1841, 6 years after the white settlement of Melbourne. It was Melbourne’s first Fruit and Vegetable market and the only place to which growers transported their produce until the Queen Victoria Market opened in 1878.
The Collins Street edifice as seen here was built in the mid 1850s after a fire in 1853.
This structure was demolished in the early 1960s with the site becoming the home of the National Mutual Life Association Head Office.