This is a blog series where we share the community submissions sent to the Minister for Planning regarding the draft Preston Market Precinct Development Plan. We’re sharing these to give our communities voices a platform, and inspire others with stories about the market.
Submission 008:
To the Minister for Planning,
I am writing as a local resident, a regular weekly visitor to Preston Market and a member of the Australian Labor Party to express my strong opposition to the proposed Preston Market Development Plan.
I ask the Victorian Government to reject the plan in its current form and commit to the complete preservation of Preston Market in its existing form, location and character.
Preston Market is so much more than a place to buy groceries. It is one of the few remaining traditional markets in Melbourne where people from all walks of life come together. It is a place where community thrives, relationships develop, small businesses grow and people feel connected to the neighbourhood they call home.
As someone who attends the market every week, I see its value firsthand. It is part of the rhythm of local life. You see familiar faces, speak with traders who know their customers, discover independent businesses and experience the diversity that makes our community special. It is an authentic, welcoming and accessible place that cannot simply be recreated through new buildings, apartment towers or a collection of retail tenancies.
Our market is not just a commercial asset. It belongs to the social and cultural fabric of our community.
An affordable alternative that must be protected
At a time when the cost of living continues to put enormous pressure on households, Preston Market provides an important alternative to major supermarket chains. People come here to buy fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, seafood and other essentials at competitive prices. For many families, pensioners, students and people on lower incomes, this affordability matters.
The market also provides genuine opportunities for small and independent businesses. It allows local traders to build livelihoods, serve their communities and compete in a retail environment increasingly dominated by large corporations.
These businesses contribute to the local economy, but their value cannot be measured by turnover or commercial floor space alone. They provide diversity, personal service, cultural connection and a sense of independence that is increasingly difficult to find in modern retail environments.
We should be protecting places that make everyday life more affordable and create opportunities for ordinary people, not placing those qualities at risk in the name of redevelopment.
Sydney should be a warning, not a blueprint
Sydney provides an important lesson in what can be lost when urban development prioritises new buildings and commercial redevelopment over the preservation of traditional market spaces.
Historically, Sydney's central markets have been relocated, demolished or redeveloped as the city has changed. The former market sites in the Haymarket area illustrate how these spaces have given way to other uses over time. While Paddy's Markets continues to operate, Sydney's experience demonstrates that the survival of a market cannot be taken for granted.
When these places disappear, we lose more than somewhere to shop. We lose independent traders, affordable food options, cultural traditions and informal public spaces where people from different backgrounds interact naturally.
Once that character is lost, it is extraordinarily difficult to recover.
Melbourne should learn from this history rather than repeat it. Preston Market is one of the remaining places where we can preserve a living market for future generations. We should be asking ourselves what kind of city we want to leave our children: one where every valuable piece of community life is eventually replaced by apartments and chain retail, or one that has the foresight to protect the places that make our neighbourhoods distinctive.
Retaining a percentage is not the same as preserving a market
I understand that the proposed plan seeks to retain a substantial proportion of the market's footprint while accommodating residential development and additional retail and commercial space.
However, I do not believe that retaining 81 per cent of the footprint is an adequate measure of success.
A market's value cannot be reduced to a percentage on a plan. Its character depends on the relationship between its traders, its layout, its atmosphere, its affordability and the people who use it. Changes to these elements can fundamentally alter the experience of the market, even if much of the physical footprint remains.
A market can be retained on paper while the qualities that make it a market are gradually lost in practice.
I am also aware that my preferred outcome — preserving the market in its complete existing form — may not align with the development framework currently being considered. Nevertheless, I believe it is important to state this position clearly. The fact that an alternative may fall outside the parameters of the current plan does not make it any less worthy of consideration.
The starting point should be the preservation of the market, with development designed around it — not the redevelopment of the site with whatever portion of the market can be retained.
If there is a genuine commitment to protecting Preston Market, the existing market should remain intact, with its traders, spaces, character and ongoing operation protected. Any necessary upgrades should support the market's continued life rather than fundamentally transform it.
As a Labor member, I expect better
I am a member of the Australian Labor Party, and I find it deeply disappointing that a Labor Government would consider a proposal that risks compromising such an important community institution.
Labor has a proud tradition of standing up for working people, supporting small business, improving access to essential goods and services, and creating communities where people from different backgrounds can participate and belong.
Those values should mean something in the decisions we make about our cities.
How can we talk about cost-of-living relief while putting at risk a place that offers affordable food? How can we speak about supporting small business while allowing the future of independent traders to become secondary to a major redevelopment? And how can we promote social cohesion while potentially diminishing one of the places where that cohesion is lived and experienced every day?
I recognise the need for more housing and the importance of planning for a growing population. But housing and heritage, development and community, need not be opposing objectives. We should be ambitious enough to pursue housing opportunities without sacrificing irreplaceable community assets.
A Labor Government should be capable of finding a better balance.
I urge the Government to listen to the residents, traders and families who rely on Preston Market, rather than treating their concerns as an obstacle to an already established development vision.
Our market is not up for grabs
I do not want future generations to look back and wonder why we allowed Preston Market to lose the very qualities that made it special. I do not want our children to grow up in a city where traditional markets have become a memory, replaced by towers of apartments, familiar chain stores and generic retail spaces that could exist anywhere.
Preston Market is part of what gives this neighbourhood its identity. It is a place where people can shop affordably, where small businesses have a chance to succeed, where cultures meet and where community is built through ordinary, everyday interactions.
These things are easy to overlook when looking at development plans, architectural drawings and economic projections. But they are precisely the things that make a neighbourhood worth living in.
As a local resident who visits the market every week, I am asking the Government to recognise that its responsibility extends beyond accommodating development. It must also protect the places that make our community what it is.
I therefore call on the Minister for Planning to:
1 Reject the proposed Development Plan in its current form.
2 Commit to the complete preservation of Preston Market in its existing form, location and character, including its traders, market spaces and ongoing use.
3 Ensure that any future improvements or surrounding development are designed around the preservation of the intact market, rather than requiring the market to be reshaped to accommodate redevelopment.
4 Recognise the market's essential role in providing affordable food, supporting independent businesses, preserving cultural diversity and strengthening community connections.
Preston Market is not an empty site waiting for a more profitable use. It is a living part of our community, built through decades of work by traders and sustained by the people who walk through its doors every week.
Some things are worth more than the value of the land they occupy. Preston Market is one of them.
Our market is not up for grabs. It is part of our community, and it deserves to be protected in its entirety.
I ask the Victorian Government to do the right thing and preserve Preston Market for the people of Preston and for generations of Victorians to come.
