History

The first Brisbane Market

Markets in Brisbane have existed for over 145 years. The first Brisbane Markets, originally called the Municipal Market, was established in Market Street in Brisbane's CBD. Produce was delivered to the Market by river barges.

In 1864 the Municipal Market was relocated to Roma Street, where they came under the control of the Brisbane City Council. This move gave the Market close proximity to rail links. As the city grew, the Market was augmented by nearby premises in Turbot Street. The two locations functioned as the one fruit and vegetable and farm produce wholesale market.

The move to Rocklea

By 1935, the shortcomings of the Municipal Market were becoming evident with mounting problems of inadequate space caused by the growth in food requirements of an expanding city, as well as increasing traffic congestion. The clash between market vehicles and the morning peak hour traffic became the dominant factor in calls to relocate the inner city market to a larger site outside of the CBD.

 The Queensland Government moved to develop more adequate premises by forming a Market Investigation Committee in 1958. This committee, aided by government legislations (the City of Brisbane Market Act, 1960) created the Brisbane Market Trust, whose responsibility was to provide a public market for the sale and storage of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Over the next few years work progressed to design and construct a new fruit and vegetable Market at Rocklea, approximately 11 kilometres from the Brisbane CBD. When it was first proposed that the Brisbane Market move to Rocklea many wholesalers and growers opposed the move, citing the distance from the city centre, climatic conditions in winter, transportation difficulties in the wet season and lack of arterial roads as reasons not to relocate.

Despite the doubts held by some, the Coordinator General's Department was named the constructing authority for the Market project and work began. H J Lee and Son Pty Ltd prepared the site and C P Hornick carried out a £1million contract to install underground services, concrete retaining walls and paving as well as build five blocks.

When time came to open the Brisbane Market at Rocklea in 1964, Brisbane City Council straightened and widened Sherwood Road. At this time, the then Chairman of the Market Trust, Mr R L Murray, announced that the total borrowing for the Market and commercial buildings was £1,625,000, while the total project cost was close to £2million.

The new Brisbane Market officially opened for business on 31 August 1964 on 53 hectares of land with road access from both Sherwood Road and Curzon Street. The Markets were opened by the Hon G F R Nicklin, Premier of Queensland. The official party included the Leader of the Opposition, Hon J A Duggan, the Minister for Primary Industries, Hon J A Row and the Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Alderman C Jones.

The views of those within the Industry, are reflected by the words of Mr R Cumming who was quoted in the Brisbane Produce Trade Bulletin's coverage of the opening of the Market as saying 

"We have considerably more parking space, well ventilated and airy buildings. We hope the market will mean better hours, working conditions, with more buyers attending. At the moment, no one knows how it will work out, but we all hope for the best."

Since relocating to Rocklea, the Brisbane Markets have expanded substantially with additional land purchased for expansion and the construction of numerous warehouses, distribution centres and other buildings. After over 40 years of successful trading onsite, the Brisbane Market's founders would be proud of its position as one of Australia's premier Central Markets.

The 1974 Floods

In over 40 years of trading at Rocklea there has been only one brief period in January/February 1974 when the Market was not able to trade. This was a result of the devastating Australia Day Brisbane flood, which at its peak left only the roofs of market buildings above water.

The outlook at that time in much of metropolitan Brisbane was one of desolation. The population was stunned by the catastrophe of the flood. A breakdown in the supply of vital fresh foodstuffs would have been unbearable to people already faced with despair. But there was no workable fresh fruit and vegetable market, it was under water, and even when the water receded the Market was a disaster area full of mud and rotting food.

It was now that Market organisations proved their worth. A temporary Market was established on higher ground in workshops in Curzon Street adjacent to the Sherwood Road Market. Due to the unavailability of electricity all unloading had to be carried out in daylight hours so, from sun-up to mid-day, produce was unloaded and trading commenced at 12.30 pm. With no facilities for credit transactions, in fact none of the normal trading amenities, a new system of trading was set up. A very wise move was the "pegging" of prices to those ruling before the flood and so, despite panic buying, consumers were protected from over pricing. Many difficulties were encountered during this period but good co-operation among wholesalers enabled the temporary Market to operate extremely well.

In the mean time Market organisations, the Brisbane City Council, the Fire Department and the Defence Forces set about the mammoth task of cleaning up and repairing the Market in Sherwood Road.

Today, the Brisbane Market plays a critical role in the horticultural marketing chain with more than 4,000 people working or doing business at the Markets each day.

Brisbane Markets Limited

In May 1996, the Brisbane Market Trust became the Brisbane Market Authority, and on the 13 December 1999, following the repeal of the City of Brisbane Market Act, the Brisbane Market Corporation was formed.

In August 2002 the State Government and Brisbane Market Corporation Limited entered into a contract to sell the Brisbane Markets to Landacq Limited. This followed a competitive public tender process with Landacq Limited being the successful bidder.

Landacq Limited was formed in 1994 with 32 shareholders, all of whom were primary wholesalers in the Brisbane Markets. Landacq Limited was managed by the industry representative Brismark, with Brismark's Chief Executive Officer being its Managing Director.

The push to get the State Government to relinquish ownership of the Markets had been a Brismark objective for a number of years and when the Government decided to sell in December 2002, Landacq Limited was identified as a suitable legal entity to be a bidding entity for the Brisbane Markets.

The bidding process involved four stages over some 10 months. The winning bid valued the site and business operations, as at 30 September 2002, at $74 million.

On 1 October 2002, Landacq Limited took possession of the Markets and in late 2002 shareholders voted to change the company's name to Brisbane Markets Limited and the boards of both Brismark and Brisbane Markets Limited reaffirmed their commitment to a structure that sees both organisations share a single CEO, as an appropriate and effective way of maximising the benefits of what had been achieved.

The Brisbane Markets are now industry owned, with in excess of 150 shareholders. Under the existing ownership model, which has a strong industry focus, it is planned that the current Rocklea site will be the home of the Brisbane Markets well into the future.