The Little Burley Market
A monthly market on the lakeshore terrace of Commonwealth Place, in the one part of the National Triangle designed to be sat on rather than looked at.
About this market
Commonwealth Place is the result of an open design competition run by the National Capital Authority in 2000 and won by Durbach Block Architects with Sue Barnsley Design. Completed in 2002 and given the ACT chapter's Urban Award by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects the following year, it is a grassed square of roughly 100 by 50 metres cut into the southern shore of Lake Burley Griffin, sitting directly on Walter Burley Griffin's Land Axis. The architects deliberately shaped the landscape rather than putting up a large building. The Little Burley Market has been using that decision to its advantage ever since.
A market with the National Triangle as its backdrop
Most of the National Triangle is designed to be approached, photographed and walked past. Commonwealth Place is the exception: a terrace built to be occupied, with the lake on one side and the axis running through it. Drop 60-plus stalls onto that and you get a market whose setting does more work than most operators could buy. On the first Saturday of the month, 9am to 2pm, the terrace fills with multicultural street food, chef-made desserts, flowers, art, photography, homewares, artisan bread, pastries and smoked charcuterie.
Market at a glance
The programming is the other half of it. Live local music is standard, and the roster stretches to pipe bands, ballet workshops, face painting and hands-on arts and crafts. The market is run by Local Village Markets Pty Ltd, and its offer to performers is telling: stalls start at $75, but performers can apply for space free of charge, which is a cheap and effective way of guaranteeing there is always something happening rather than just something for sale.
The market's name is a play on the lake it sits beside, which carries the middle and last names of Walter Burley Griffin, the Chicago architect who won the 1912 competition to design Canberra and never saw the lake filled.
Good to know before you go
This is an exposed lakeside terrace in a city that gets genuinely cold, so a July market and a November market are different experiences and you should dress for the one you are attending. Parking around Commonwealth Place and the parliamentary triangle fills up, and the National Capital Authority publishes the parking arrangements for the precinct, which are worth checking before you drive in. The terrace is flat, paved and stepped in places, and it connects on foot to Reconciliation Place and the lakeshore path, so the market pairs naturally with a walk rather than being a destination you drive to and leave.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When does The Little Burley Market run?
- The first Saturday of every month, 9am to 2pm, on Queen Elizabeth Terrace at Commonwealth Place.
- What is there besides stalls?
- Live music is a fixture, and the program regularly extends to pipe bands, ballet workshops, face painting and arts and crafts activities, so it is built to hold children for longer than a shopping trip normally would.
- How much does a stall cost?
- Stalls start from $75. Performers can apply for space at no charge, which is part of why there is usually music on.