Near the Anzac Bridge, workers in hi-vis vests and aprons move among crates of stock, greeting regular customers with handshakes and waves. Families weave in and out of stores as pelicans try to sneak scraps of fish.
Sydney Fish Market is experiencing its usual bustle for the Friday before Christmas – but this year will likely be the market’s last festive season in this location.
Over the sound of the crowd, snippets of conversation about the move can be heard. “Are you excited?” “The last authentic fish market you will see.” “It should have been done 10 years ago!” “Won’t be the same.”
Towards the end of next year, the fish market will be moving to a new site along Blackwattle Bay. It’s a huge departure for the venue, which has been at its existing site since 1966.
While some patrons and workers are looking forward to a new space with more shops and a modern design, others are disappointed to say goodbye to the traditional market.
Evolution of an ‘already iconic’ site
Tony Tsiklas, the manager of Claudio’s Seafood in the market’s car park, has been working there for 38 years – he started as an 18-year-old doing deliveries. Over the years, Tsiklas has watched the market grow busier and busier.
“From the old days, I remember it wasn’t crazy like this. We were busy, but not like now. Now … it’s like a stampede.”
Tsiklas wonders about the move – he’s not sure it will be easy.
He’s worried about space to put containers, scales, windows, freezers and other facilities required to run the business. “I want to transition smoothly,” he says. “We don’t know what it is going to be like, [if] there is a limited space for containers on the other side.”
Operating on the harbour close to the CBD as both an authentic fish market and a retail venue, the site is “already iconic”, says Gus Dannoun, the head of Sydney Fish Market’s quota and operations.
“You will find it very hard to find that whole combination in the one location, in a fish market, anywhere else.”
Dannoun started working in technology for the New South Wales Fish Marketing Authority in 1981, when the market was a “very trade-oriented business”.
“You hardly saw any general public come on to the site.”
Over time, the number of retailers grew from two to six, and more of the public came to buy their products. “We also started discovering the fish market started having tourist appeal,” Dannoun says.
That “truly transformed the business”.
“Some might say it happened organically … by accident, but I think it is the fact that the site was evolving.”
The next evolution of the market, he says, is moving into the new precinct.
The new market, designed by architects 3XN, has been pitched as “Sydney’s most significant harbourside building since the Opera House” by the NSW government. The site will be both a “purpose-built authentic operating fish market” and a “major food and dining attraction”.
‘I’m actually pretty excited’
Patrons Carla and Craig Waghorn visit weekly to shop for their end-of-week seafood dinners. Craig says he will miss the original fish market.
“I’m disappointed,” he says. “I just love the fact that it is actually smelly.”
But Carla is looking forward to something more “cosmopolitan”.
“I think it will present everything a little bit more nicely, so I’m actually pretty excited. I’m sure they will have other shops and restaurants over there as well.” She adds that she is excited to bring her parents to the new precinct when they visit from Italy.
Bill Dawes thinks the move should have happened years ago. “It has gotten busier and busier and busier, and needs a makeover,” he says.
Dawes was a chef for 25 years and spent five of those years at the fish market. As a student, he used to visit the market’s auction house.
Now he visits as a shopper. “The wife’s always getting me to stop in the place. I’m off to the relos, the in-laws, for Christmas.”
He is skipping the Christmas Eve and Day rush this year – when the market is famously open for a marathon 36 hours straight. Last year, he visited, had a look around, then “took off”.
“It was too busy,” he says. “Christmas Day rush is go, go, go, even from a packer’s point of view. They are real fast, real quick, and if you know what you want, you’re going to get looked after very quickly.
“You’ve got to know what you got, pre-plan what you want, hit them up for a quick fish special, get it, get out.”
Dawes has been watching the new site’s development over the last year and a half.
“I’m excited to see what is in store,” he says. “It looks big.”
Despite Tsiklas’ reservations, he’s certain patrons will flock to the new site.
“I’m sure a lot of people are going there. [Even] if they haven’t been before, they will come to have a look because there are a lot more stores in there.”
And he is committed to carrying on Claudio’s at the new precinct. “Same name,” he says. “Same name, until I retire.”
