Brisbane Markets has achieved another milestone with the Rocklea site celebrating its 60th birthday this week.
The official opening of the new site at Rocklea was held on Wednesday, 26 August 1964 with the new Market open for trade from Monday, 31 August 1964.
Watch the transformation for yourself, read about how it happened and explore the site’s changes below.
See the transformation yourself
How it happened: the move from the CBD to Rocklea
Magnificent. Fantastic. World-class. An unqualified success.
These are just some of the effusive compliments given to the new Brisbane Markets in the wake of its opening in August 1964.
After years of congestion, agitation and unhappiness in the city markets located in Roma and Turbot Streets, the modern, purpose-built market was a dream over 30 years in the making.
“For far too long has it been inadequate. For too long the discomforts of its ancient and overcrowded buildings, its frustrating traffic jams and kerbside congestion, have suffered and endured and made the best of. There can be little there so dear to the heart of anyone that they need shed a tear at the parting,” the Queensland Fruit and Vegetable News (QFVN) reported on 27 August 1964.
A glorious, warm and clear winter afternoon greeted the 2,000 guests who gathered at the new Brisbane Markets on Wednesday, 26 August 1964 to witness the official opening of the site by then Queensland Premier, Frank Nicklin.
According to Premier Nicklin’s speech at the time, the £2 million Brisbane Market could be “classed as undoubtedly the best in Australia and among the best in the world”.
Inspired by the Ontario Food Terminal, the new market was U-shaped, with long buildings across three sides. These dedicated fruit and vegetable stalls surrounded an area for grower and buyer vehicles – now called the Covered Unloading Area.
Parallel to the arms of the U were the selling floors dedicated to heavy produce and bananas. Together, these areas make up the modern-day Central Trading Area and award-winning refurbishment of the original Committee of Direction of Fruit Marketing (COD) building, the Fresh Centre.
There may have been congestion and grumbles from the large number of buyers waiting to gain entry on the first official day of trade on 31 August 1964, but the traffic was cleared within 12 minutes of opening. Market gatekeeper Mr E Freidman was quoted in the Telegraph, as saying when the gates opened “it was like the charge of the Light Brigade”.
According to the Queensland Fruit and Vegetable News (3 September 1964), “the significant fact is that, despite the “rough edges” and the unfamiliar “first time around”, the Market got through its real day’s work far, far better than it has been able to do for years”.
At the commencement of trading at the Rocklea site there were 55 wholesalers dealing in fruit and vegetables and 11 in heavy vegetables. Allotment of positions in the Market was by ballot.
The Trust required the section holders to enter into a lease for 10 years with a renewal option of a further 10 years. By 1967, all available selling floor space had been leased.
While some small buyers complained about the distance they needed to walk to their vehicle, the traders and buyers who were relocating lauded the ample parking and space to manoeuvre. This additional space was deliberate, with the market location chosen not just for its proximity to rail and road transit routes (see page 3 for more information on how the Sherwood Road site was selected).
“In utilising the area reserved for these operations the planners have taken the long view. The spaciousness of the existing facilities will be reserved in any expansion to meet the needs of posterity,” Premier Nicklin said in his opening ceremony speech.
This long-term view has been shared by the subsequent generations of market stakeholders ever since, and is the same drive that led wholesalers and others in fresh produce to purchase the Brisbane Markets site from the Queensland Government in 2002 and create Brisbane Markets Limited to development and operate the site.
In his speech at the opening, Minister for Primary Industries, the Hon J. A. Row, MLA said: “We might well ask whether a project conceived in 1935 and completed in 1964, will still perform a necessary function in 1994. However … I feel sure that the work of the members of the Trust … will rank as a proud achievement in Queensland for many years.”
Those words certainly hold true today and will continue to do so for many decades to come.
