Homegrown Markets Newcastle
A hundred handmade and eco stalls at the old Newcastle railway station, one Saturday a month.
About this market
Homegrown Markets Newcastle takes over The Station on the second Saturday of each month, 10am to 2pm, with more than a hundred stalls of local handmade and eco goods. The venue is the old Newcastle railway station on Watt Street, decommissioned when the heavy rail line into the city centre was cut back and since reopened as a public space.
A hundred stalls, handmade and eco
The stall list holds to local handmade and environmentally minded goods rather than general retail, which is the distinction the operator trades on, and it is backed up with live acoustic music, face painting for children and food trucks. A hundred-plus stalls is a large monthly market for a city of Newcastle's size, and running it at The Station puts it directly in the East End rather than out in a suburban reserve. The operator calls itself the largest market community in the Hunter and runs several others across the region, at Speers Point and Nelson Bay plus the Made & Found market at Lambton Park, so a stallholder can work most weekends without leaving the Hunter.
Market at a glance
A four hour window from 10am is short for a market this size, so the crowd is concentrated rather than spread across a morning, and arriving in the first hour is the difference between browsing and queueing.
The market trades on a decommissioned railway terminus. The Station is the former Newcastle railway station on Watt Street, the end of the line into the city centre until the heavy rail was truncated and the corridor reworked. Rather than demolishing the terminus, it was reopened as a public venue, which is why a monthly market with a hundred stalls can set up on a site that spent more than a century handling trains.
Practical notes
Second Saturday, 10am to 2pm. The operator notes that dates can shift with venue availability and that adverse weather forecasts can force changes, so a check of their social channels before travelling is worth the minute. Bring a card and bags. Watt Street is in the Newcastle East End with parking around it, and the light rail runs along Hunter Street a short walk away, which is the easier approach on a market Saturday. This is Awabakal country.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When is Homegrown Markets Newcastle on?
- The second Saturday of each month, 10am to 2pm, at The Station on Watt Street in Newcastle.
- What is sold there?
- More than 100 stalls of local handmade and eco goods, with live acoustic music, face painting for children and food trucks.
- Does the same operator run other markets?
- Yes. Homegrown also runs markets at Speers Point and Nelson Bay and the Made & Found market at Lambton Park, and describes itself as the largest market community in the Hunter region.