CNR FLINDERS AND EXHIBITION STREETS
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| VCA building, present day (Image: Kasia Zygmuntowicz) |
The first and second floors of the seven storey, reinforced concrete building on the North West corner of Flinders and Exhibition streets once housed the Commonwealth Dept of Markets and Migration [1925-1928] and the Australian Meat Council [1925- 1935].
The Victorian Cricket Association Building was designed in 1924 by H. Croxton Davey and completed early the following year. The VCA occupied the top floor, sharing its "splendid view" across the King's Domain to Government House with the Victorian Football League, and rented out the remaining office and retail spaces.
In its annual report of 1925-1926 the VCA was able to say proudly that 3LO had called the Head of the River boat races on the Yarra from the building's roof and that "the Tariff Board, the Coal Tribunal, the Dried Fruits Board and other important bodies" had held conferences in the boardroom on the sixth floor" where the view was markedly better than from their offices on the lower floors. During the Second World War, Defence Department offices occupied one of the floors. The building was also declared a safe shelter by the Air Raid Precautions Authority.
The former VCA building, like the former Herald Sun building across Exhibition street, has recently been converted to apartments.