Canberra Markets, Weekend by Weekend

Canberra's markets run to a pattern you can learn in one weekend. Saturday belongs to one big farmers market at EPIC. Sunday has three weekly markets that could hardly be more different from each other. Once a month the first weekend adds the lakeside market, the bus depot and the Hall showground, and that weekend is the one to plan a visit around.

It is also a city where the mornings matter. The two farmers markets close at 11:30am, and from May to September the early start is a cold one.

Saturday is EPIC

Capital Region Farmers Market runs every Saturday from 7am to 11:30am under the covered sheds at Exhibition Park in Mitchell. More than 100 stallholders trade, and the market checks them with producer rules and farm visits so that what you buy has come from within roughly 300 kilometres of Canberra.

It started in 2004, run by the Rotary Club of Hall, and Hall Rotary still runs it, with the profit going back to community projects. Regulars come for coffee, fresh bagels and a week's fruit and vegetables, and they're home by lunch. Turn up at eleven and you will find a market packing up.

If you would rather drive, Southern Harvest Farmers Market sets up in Bungendore's Village Square every Saturday from 9am to noon, about 38km east on the Kings Highway. It is strictly producer-only, run by a regional food co-operative, with meat and eggs from Braidwood, garlic, honey and hand-spun alpaca yarn from Michelago in the cooler months. It is smaller than EPIC, and you can talk to the farmer at every stall.

Sunday, three ways

Three markets run every Sunday, and they don't compete.

Southside Farmers Market is the south side's food shop. About 60 stalls at Canberra College in Phillip, on the corner of Launceston Street and Yamba Drive, 7am to 11:30am. It has kept a neighbourhood feel since it opened in 2006 with 12 growers, and regulars come for staples like Tilba milk.

Haig Park Village Markets in Braddon is the slow one. It runs 8am to 2pm, rain or shine, among the rows of trees planted in the early 1920s as a windbreak. Bring a picnic blanket. The food is international, the dogs are welcome and nobody is in a hurry. It only started in 2023 and was Highly Commended at the Australian Tourism Awards the next year.

Trash & Treasure Market at the Jamison Centre in Macquarie is the oldest of the three and the earliest, 6:30am to 12:30pm, every Sunday since 1974. Fruit and vegetables are now the biggest category, alongside plants, honey, live chickens and second-hand tools. Belconnen Rotary runs it and has raised more than $8 million from it. Bring cash and leave the dog at home.

The first weekend of the month

This is when Canberra's markets are at their best, because three monthly markets land on it.

The Little Burley Market fills Commonwealth Place on the first Saturday, 9am to 2pm. That's the grassed terrace cut into the shore of Lake Burley Griffin, on the Land Axis between Parliament House and the War Memorial. Sixty-plus stalls of street food, flowers, art, bread and charcuterie, with live local music. The lake is right there, so wrap up in winter.

Old Bus Depot Markets in Kingston opens on the first Sunday, 9:30am to 2:30pm. It has run since 1994 and moved into the old bus depot in 1998. The building is heritage-listed for its 1940-41 welded steel frame, which was advanced engineering for its day. About 120 regular stalls lean towards handmade and hard-to-find goods, and the popular stalls sell through early, so go in the first hour.

Hartley Hall Markets runs the same Sunday, 9am to 2pm, at the showground in Hall, about 10km north of the city. It began in 1987 with 36 stalls and a 20 cent entry fee. Hartley Lifecare runs it to support people with disability. Expect home-grown produce, baking, plants, furniture and a miniature steam train for the children. There is no market in January.

Out of town, on set weekends

Sutton Village Country Markets takes over Sutton Oval on the second Sunday, 9am to 1:30pm, just over the border off the Federal Highway. Sellers have to make most of what they sell. The bakery opposite the oval is half the reason to go. It cancelled three dates in 2026 for weather, so check its page on a bad morning.

Murrumbateman Village Market runs on the second and fourth Saturdays, 9am to 1pm, about 30km north-west in the wine district. Local wine, gin and beer sit alongside the produce, and a community stall gives backyard growers a table. It pauses in October for the Yass Valley Field Days and again in December.

Further up the Hume, Goulburn Farmers Market is on the fourth Saturday from 8am to 11am, food and farm products only, and Lilac Country Markets runs in Goulburn on the first Saturday.

Indoors, most days

Two permanent food markets cover the gaps. Fyshwick Fresh Food Markets began in 1965 as Canberra's first farmers market, with growers selling off their trucks on a Friday. It now has more than 25 independent shops, including four butchers, four fruit shops and two seafood shops, and it is closed Monday to Wednesday. Capital Food Market in Belconnen reopened in 2023 as a market hall on a site that has sold fresh food since 1976. It trades Wednesday to Sunday, 8am to 6pm, with butchers and grocers in front and places to eat behind them.

For browsing rather than buying food, Dirty Janes Canberra is a vintage warehouse in Fyshwick with more than 90 stallholders, open every day from 10am to 5pm. Handmade Market Canberra is the big one for makers: more than 270 Australian-made stalls at EPIC, a few weekends a year. The next is 27 to 29 November 2026, which is about right for Christmas shopping.

Planning a Canberra weekend

Come on the first weekend if you can. Saturday is EPIC at seven, then the Little Burley Market by the lake. On Sunday, do the bus depot or drive out to Hall. Any other weekend still gives you EPIC and the three Sunday markets.

Every market here is in the Canberra markets directory with its next trading date, and markets this weekend shows what's on now. Markets further out in the territory are on the ACT markets page.