The Berry Markets

Around 200 stalls fill the Berry Showground on the first Sunday of most months, which makes this the largest monthly outdoor market on the New South Wales South Coast. The showground it uses is not incidental. David Berry, who inherited the vast Coolangatta Estate from his brother Alexander in 1873, established an agricultural showground for the town and gave land to four denominations to build churches, and the ground he set aside is still the one the market spills across every month.

What 200 stalls actually looks like

Big enough that you should plan a loop rather than wander. The mix runs from handmade and hand-produced goods through arts and crafts to locally grown vegetables and produce, then into the categories that draw the browsers rather than the shoppers: collectables, second-hand books, plants, leather goods and clothing. The market is run as a not-for-profit by the Berry Community Activities Centre, with the money raised going back into the town, which is a different proposition from a commercial operator hiring out sites.

Berry itself does a lot of the work. The town was settled as Broughton Creek in 1825 by seven free sawyers working for Alexander Berry, grew a post office, school, tannery and store by 1866, and was renamed Berry in 1889 after David Berry's death. The main street has kept enough of that fabric to be a destination in its own right, so the market Sunday tends to turn into a day rather than an hour.

Before you set out

Note the gap: there is no market in February, so eleven Sundays a year rather than twelve. Trading runs 8am to 2pm and entry is free. Early is better if you are there for produce or for anything one-of-a-kind on the craft stalls, and later is better if you want space to move. The showground sits on the corner of Alexandra and Victoria Streets, a short walk from the main street, so park once and do both. Bring cash as a backstop, bring your own bags, and expect the ground to be grass, which matters if it has rained in the week before.