Sydney Fish Markets Reference Scheme

The Sydney Fish Markets are one of the city’s most democratic cultural institutions. Not just a marketplace, but a mecca and meeting place for chefs and home cooks, families and lovebirds, locals and tourists alike. Originally built in 1966 as a wholesale fish market, run by the Fish Marketing Authority, they have operated from the current Pyrmont site for over 50 years, while the city has grown up around them.  

The markets too have outgrown their location, and while redevelopment has long been canvassed, with so many stakeholders across public and private sectors, and new regulatory requirements, the politics around renewal had proved insurmountable until an audacious master plan in 2016 broke through.  

Our reference scheme proposed moving the markets to a nearby but less constrained site at the head of Blackwattle Bay. The urban benefits include restoring public access to Wentworth Park (opposite) and significantly extending the public harbour foreshore walk.  

Benefits to the market operators include more than doubling the available floorspace at 35,000 square metres plus potential outdoor seating for more than 3,000 people, and mooring wharves for fishing and recreational vessels. The relocation also facilitates a land release on the former site for future development.