Koah Monthly Markets
A first-Saturday country market at the Koah Hall on the Kuranda range road, where stallholders can pay their site fee in the local exchange currency instead of cash.
About this market
The Koah Monthly Markets run at the Koah Hall, 322 Koah Road, on the first Saturday of every month except December and January, from 9am to 1pm. Koah sits in the pocket of country between Kuranda and Mareeba on the Atherton Tableland, and the hall is far enough off the tourist route that this stays a market for the people who live around it.
Organic produce, live music, and a hall with a country feel
Mareeba Shire Council's own description gets the tone right: a gathering place to relax, with live music, food stalls and coffee, and locals selling fresh organic produce, bread, plants, arts and crafts and everything in between. There is a country feel to it and plenty for children to do, which for a small hall market on a tropical Saturday morning is most of the point. The tableland behind Kuranda produces year round, so the produce tables here are not seasonal in the way a southern market's are. Stallholders set up from 8am, an hour before the doors open, which is the window to arrive in if you are selling rather than shopping.
Market at a glance
The stall fee has an unusual second option, and it is the thing that makes this market genuinely different from every other hall market on the tableland.
The market doubles as a trading day for the FNQ Community Exchange, a local exchange trading system in which members swap goods and services in a community currency rather than dollars. A stall site costs five dollars, or five units of that local currency if you are a member, so the same hall runs a cash market and a barter economy side by side on the same morning.
Good to know before you go
First Saturday, 9am to 1pm, and note the two months off: there is no market in December or January, so the November date is the last of the year and February restarts it. The hall is on Koah Road, a few kilometres in from the Kennedy Highway between Kuranda and Mareeba, and the turn is easy to overshoot at speed. Bring cash. Parking is on the grounds and along the road. If you are combining it with the rest of the tableland, the Mount Molloy markets run the same first Saturday morning further north. This is Djabugay country.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When are the Koah Monthly Markets on?
- The first Saturday of every month except December and January, 9am to 1pm, at the Koah Hall on Koah Road.
- What can I buy there?
- Fresh organic produce, bread, plants, arts and crafts and everything in between, with food stalls, coffee and live music. Mareeba Shire Council describes it as a country market with plenty for children to do.
- How much does a stall cost?
- Five dollars per stall, or five units of the local exchange currency for members of the FNQ Community Exchange. Setup starts at 8am, an hour before trading.