Its listing means that any development plan “likely to have a significant impact” on the site's heritage must be assessed by the federal environment department before it can proceed. The move follows a Heritage Victoria ruling in March that ground to a halt the city council's plans for major renovation works. Loading The council had planned to temporarily remove four of the market's 140-year-old sheds and dig three levels of parking and storage areas for traders beneath them. The refurbished structures would then have been returned to where they have stood since 1878.

But Heritage Victoria told the council it did not accept assurances the sheds could be returned in their original condition. The council is now reviewing its plans. Lord Mayor Sally Capp said the new heritage protection – which the city council applied for in 2015 – would not hamper the market’s redevelopment. “The heritage listing and renewal can exist side-by-side and both are incredibly important,” she said. Cr Capp said she hoped national heritage protection would "once and for all" convince those people with concerns about the redevelopment “that the renewal will stay true to what people love about the Queen Victoria Market”.

She said the millions of dollars the council wanted to spend on the market would restore its heritage buildings and secure its place as a traditional open-air market. The application by Melbourne City Council to obtain a national heritage listing says the market “demonstrates the importance of fresh produce markets to colonial settlements, and the way people accessed fresh produce at the time”. Mr Frydenberg said the listing “celebrates the vibrant living culture and character of the Queen Victoria Market”. “For almost 150 years, it has sustained Melbourne, first as a meat market and then as a food and produce market.” An estimated 6500 burial sites remain under the Queen Victoria Market’s sheds, stores and car park, which sit on the edge of Melbourne CBD and are increasingly surrounded by apartment developments.

The cemetery is the largest early colonial cemetery in Australia, and was a resting place for both settlers and Aboriginal people who died before 1854. “The colour, noise and traditions of market trading continue to this day within the Victorian-era structures, layout and fittings that make it such a grand old part of the Australian story,” Mr Frydenberg said. Other Melbourne sites on the National Heritage places list include the Royal Exhibition Building, the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Rippon Lea and Flemington Racecourse.