THE PAST ON DISPLAY AT THE QUEEN VICTORIA MARKET'S NEW LIBRARY!

Last week, Extent Heritage joined Lord Mayor Sally Capp AO and others at the launch of the narrm ngarrgu Library and Family Services Centre, a new community hub at the heart of the redevelopment of the Queen Victoria Market Precinct.  

Our staff were present to make our own contribution to the Centre—we have supplied some artefacts for display in the library, namely a collection of tableware and glass bottles from the early 1800s-early 1900s, recovered from the site during Extent’s archaeological excavation work there, in 2018.  

“Since we started on work on this project five years ago we’ve helped tell the story of the site, from thousands of years of Aboriginal occupation to Victorian-era hospitality,” says Extent Heritage CEO Ian Travers. “It’s great to see some of our finds are now accessible to the public.”  

“Extent Heritage is proud to have been a part of a project that will be a significant community hub for Melbourne,” says Rusalka Rubio Perez, who heads up our Artefact Processing and Analysis team in Merri-Bek. “Thanks to the work of Cora Wolswinkel and Dr Edwina Kay in our team, we’ve been able to give these pieces of history a new life.”  

The artefacts are part of a collection of over 70 contemporary artworks and heritage items throughout the space, including a series of new artworks from Maree Clarke, a Mutti Mutti, Yorta Yorta, Boon Wurrung and Wemba Wemba woman, and work from a host of other First Nations artists curated by Dr Megan Evans.  

The new narrm ngarrgu Library and Family Services Centre is open to the public now.  

Photo, from left to right: David Fitzsimmons (Creative Urban Places Program Lead, City of Melbourne); Rusalka Rubio Perez (Team Leader for Artefact Processing and Analysis, Extent Heritage); Dr Megan Evans (project curator, Munro Library); and Sally Capp AO (Lord Mayor, City of Melbourne).