Unique IDFN-0001Description*** This function applies only to Sydney City Council ***
Other municipal Councils absorbed by the City did not establish or administer markets, although a power to do so was conferred by the Municipalities Act 1858.
Council was given the power to establish and administer markets for the sale of livestock, fruit and produce for the City, by the Sydney Corporation Act 1842, renewed in subsequent Corporation Acts. Council received the crown grant in 1844 for land now bounded by Pitt, Hay, George and Campbell Streets for market purposes. Council also administered markets on George St, at the site of the Queen Victoria Building. Both the Haymarket and George St markets long pre-dated Council, which took over the responsibility for managing them from the Colonial Government.
The Haymarket produce markets were initially housed in sheds and on open paddocks. The first (old) Belmore Market buildings were constructed in 1869 (to the east of Pitt St), and were replaced by the New Belmore Market (the present Capitol Theatre building) erected in 1893. The Queen Victoria Market building was constructed 1893-1898, replacing earlier market buildings on the same site, some pre-dating the incorporation of the Council, others constructed by Council in 1870. In 1887 Council constructed an additional fruit and produce market in Sussex Street, but this was never actually used as a market because of grower resistance to the site.
Council also constructed and administered a fish market at Woolloomooloo (1872), which was relocated to Quay St (Haymarket) in 1910.
In 1880 the livestock markets were moved to Flemington, apparently because a site outside the city boundaries and convenient to the western railway was considered more appropriate.
In the two decades before about 1915, the produce markets were gradually transferred across George St towards the head of Darling Harbour around Hay, Ultimo, Quay and Thomas Streets, and covering several acres. There was also an associated municipal cold storage works.
In 1968, responsibility for markets was transferred by the State Government to the newly-created Sydney Markets Authority. Responsibility for the fish markets was removed in 1945, and the livestock market had also apparently been removed from the Council at an earlier date, but this is still to be researched.
Bibliography:
Shirley Fitzgerald: Sydney 1842-1992 (Sydney, Hale & Iremonger, 1992). See esp pp 62-69.
John Shaw: The Queen Victoria Building (Sydney, Wellington Lane Press, 1987)CreationSydney Corporation Act 1842, ss71, 72: empowered the Council to establish and administer markets.
Sydney Corporation Act 1879 s132, and Municipal Cattle Sale Yards Site Acquisition Act 1880: permitted Council to acquire land for cattle sale markets outside the City boundary.
For municipalities other than the City of Sydney: Municipalities Act 1858 s72, power to make bylaws to regulate markets. Authority to create and administer markets was conferred by the Local Government Act 1919 part XX.
Local Government Act 1919, Part XX: applied to Council from 1949.AbolitionSydney Farm Produce Authority Marketing Act 1968: transferred control of all remaining Council markets to a new Sydney Markets Authority controlled by the State Government.
