First Sunday, Third Saturday: How Monthly Markets Work

About half the markets in our directory, 365 of 719 listings in October 2026, trade on one set weekend a month. Some hold the first Saturday, others the third Sunday or the last. Bellingen has two markets and splits the Saturdays between them.

The number is the most useful fact about a monthly market. Once you know it, every date for the next year follows, and the market date finder will list them and count how many other markets share the pattern. Below are the markets on each weekend, the ones that trade twice, and the few dates a year when the pattern stops being reliable.

Which weekend is which

Each number covers a fixed seven days. A first weekend market trades between the 1st and the 7th, second between the 8th and 14th, third between the 15th and 21st and fourth between the 22nd and 28th. A fifth weekend only exists when the month runs to the 29th or later on that day. "Last" means the final one, so it is the fourth in most months and the fifth in a few.

The guide to when markets run explains why so many markets are monthly in the first place. Short version: volunteers can staff one Sunday a month.

The first weekend is the crowded one

Count the markets on each weekend and the first comes out on top. In the directory 63 markets trade on a first Saturday and 57 on a first Sunday. The second and third weekends hold 45 to 55 each. The fourth is the quietest, with 31 on Saturday and 35 on Sunday.

The fourth weekend is also the one that runs into Christmas. Most of the December date changes we record are fourth weekend markets stepping back to the third, as Christmas markets in Australia sets out.

The habit is stronger in some states than others. In Victoria 155 of 225 listings are monthly, more than two in three. In Western Australia it is 13 of 61, where Perth leans on weekly farmers markets and summer night markets. And a fourth Saturday market is nearly always a Victorian one: of the 20 that trade only on that Saturday, 15 are there.

Who trades on which weekend

A few markets for each slot, picked from the listings people search for most.

First Saturday

Surry Hills Market has held the first Saturday at Shannon Reserve for more than forty years, and the money still goes to the neighbourhood centre. Cobbitty Village Markets has traded from the public school grounds on the same Saturday since May 1982, with January and February off. Brunswick Heads Market sets up in Memorial Park on the riverbank. In St Kilda, Veg Out Farmers Market runs 8:30am to 1pm, a short window for a monthly market. Deloraine Market fills the showground, though not in January or November.

First Sunday

Cherry Lake Market in Altona is the Lions Club's, about eighty stalls from 9am to 1pm. Gisborne Olde Time Market closes two streets for around 150 stalls, and Caulfield Food and Craft Market puts more than 100 inside the racecourse. Both skip January. On the South Coast, The Berry Markets brings around 200 stalls to the showground on the first Sunday of most months.

Second Saturday

Violet Town Community Market has been on the second Saturday since 1978. The Lost Woods Market takes over Puffing Billy Park at Emerald, with a free shuttle from the secondary college. Broken Hill Community Markets runs March to November, and the farmers market at Abbotsford Convent fills the convent grounds with Victorian growers.

Second Sunday

Williamstown Farmers' Market brings around 40 producers to Robertson Reserve. Blackheath Growers Market has kept the second Sunday since August 2003 and takes January off. Le Marché French Market runs 9am to 1pm at Woolwich Dock. Coolangatta Beachfront Market is a second Sunday market too, with a twist covered further down.

Third Saturday

Norah Head Ocean View Market trades on Mazlin Reserve from 9am to 2pm. Brighton Farmers Market is an accredited producers market, 8:30am to 1pm. Creswick Market holds the third Saturday of most months. The biggest is Bellingen Community Markets, more than 200 stalls in Bellingen Park and running since 1980.

Third Sunday

Emerald Market in the Dandenong Ranges runs 10am to 3pm. Malmsbury Farmers and Artists Market has around eighty accredited producers. The Lions Club market at Tooradin trades on Memorial Island every third Sunday, January and July included. In Sydney, Lane Cove Makers Market runs 9am to 3pm and skips January.

Fourth Saturday

Traralgon Farmers Market uses Kay Street Gardens. Daylesford Farmers Market is at the primary school, 9am to 1pm, and the town's other markets sit on different weekends. Bayside Farmers Market at Sandringham runs 8am to 1pm. Benalla Lakeside Craft and Farmers Market skips January and moves to the third Saturday in December, as does Bathurst Farmers Market. Over the Murray, Deniliquin's Lions Club market cooks breakfast as well.

Fourth Sunday

Paradise Point Market lines the Broadwater side of the northern Gold Coast, 8am to 1pm. Berry Village Market brings about 80 stalls to the bowling club, which gives Berry a market on the first Sunday and another on the fourth. Tarana Community Farmers Market runs 9am to 1pm between Bathurst and Oberon, and Upwey Community Market 9am to 2pm.

Last Saturday or Sunday

Pomonal Village Market fills its hall and grounds on the last Sunday, as does Tamborine Mountain State School Markets with more than 130 stalls and Sarina Markets at the showground. Mirboo North Market takes the last Saturday, every month but December.

Twice a month, and the odd ones

Fifty-four markets in the directory trade on two or more weekends a month. The usual pairs are first and third, or second and fourth, which keeps a fortnight between dates.

Sunrise Market at Indooroopilly runs the first and third Sunday, all year. So does Goolwa Wharf Markets, the Rotary market opposite the wharf. On the second and fourth, 1770 Markets trades on the SES grounds on Sunday and adds dates on long weekends and through the school holidays. Boonah Country Markets and Kingscliff Lions Beachside Market do the same on Saturday, and Ryde Wharf Market on Sunday by the Parramatta River.

Then there are patterns nobody would design from scratch. Bellingen Growers Market trades every Saturday except the third, which is the Saturday the community market has. Boroondara Farmers Market runs on the third and fifth Saturday, so a few months a year get two markets and the rest get one. Mareeba Markets uses the second and fifth Saturday (the Cairns guide covers the rest of the Tablelands rotation). Nelson Bay Legacy Market trades the first, third and fifth Sunday.

Fifth weekends

A month gets five Saturdays or five Sundays only when it starts on the right day. Here are the next ones:

• Fifth Saturdays: 31 October 2026, then 30 January, 29 May, 31 July and 30 October 2027.

• Fifth Sundays: 29 November 2026, then 31 January, 30 May, 29 August and 31 October 2027.

On those weekends "fourth" and "last" are a week apart. In November 2026 a fourth Sunday market trades on the 22nd and a last Sunday market on the 29th.

Stratford Victoria Sunday Market in Gippsland only trades on a fifth Sunday, so its next date is 29 November. The Gold Coast beachfront markets turn the quirk into a rotation. Broadbeach has the first and third Sunday, Coolangatta the second, and Burleigh Heads the last. When a month has five Sundays, Coolangatta adds the fourth, so the operator has a market on every Sunday of the month. The Gold Coast guide has the detail.

When the pattern breaks

December. The fourth weekend lands on or after Christmas, so markets move. Lancefield, Stirling, Boyanup and Springwood all trade on the third weekend of December 2026 in place of the fourth. Deloraine adds a Christmas market on the third Saturday.

January. Fifty-two monthly markets in the directory have January off, and some take February too. Port Elliot Rotary Market goes the other way and trades every Saturday in January. Markets open over Christmas and New Year covers who is on and who is not.

Show days and one-offs. Red Hill's first Saturday market has no market on 6 March 2027 because of the Red Hill Show. Markets post clashes like this on their own sites, and we add them to the listing when we find them.

Easter and Anzac Day in 2027. Easter Saturday and Sunday are 27 and 28 March, the fourth and last weekend of the month. Anzac Day, 25 April, is the fourth and last Sunday of April. So every fourth or last weekend market has its regular date on Easter weekend, and every fourth or last Sunday market has its regular date on Anzac Day. Check the listing that week, and see markets on public holidays for the markets that close or add a date.

Plan by the number

Remember the pattern, not the date. "Third Sunday, Emerald" will still be true next year, and you can work any month out from it. To save the next date to your phone, use the add to calendar link on the market's listing. To see what is actually trading on a given weekend, with the monthly patterns, seasons and December moves already worked out, markets this weekend does the counting for you.