Malanda Markets

Malanda sits 732 metres up on the Atherton Tableland, about 85 kilometres inland from Cairns, and it has been a dairy town for well over a century. The market that fills the showgrounds on Thomas Street on the third Saturday of each month is run by the Malanda Lions Club, and it trades on the produce that this cool, wet, green country is good at growing.

Tableland produce at a country showground

Seven-thirty is the start, which is normal for far north Queensland and early for anyone visiting from further south. What is on the tables is fresh local produce, crafts and homemade goods, and the Lions run the food themselves with bacon and egg burgers and sausage on bread doing the breakfast trade. A showground is a generous site for a monthly market, with room for stalls to spread out and for people to park on the grass, and the Lions Club running it means the money stays in the district rather than going to an operator.

The dairy story is the town's story. James English, later the publican of the Malanda Hotel, and James Emerson moved into the district in 1908 and saw what the rainfall and the pasture could support. Malanda had its own butter factory by 1919, the railway reached the town in 1911, and from the 1930s the region's dairy processing concentrated here. The Malanda Dairy Centre still tells that history a short drive from the showgrounds, and the Malanda Falls on the North Johnstone River sit at the northern entrance to town.

Good to know before you go

Third Saturday is the rule, and 7:30am to 12:30pm means the market is essentially over by lunchtime, so treat it as a morning trip. Come early if produce is the point; come with a jumper if you are driving up from the coast, because Malanda at 732 metres is noticeably cooler than Cairns and the Tablelands get real rain. The showgrounds front onto Thomas Street and there is room to park on site. If you are making a day of it, the falls and the rainforest walk at the northern edge of town and the dairy centre are both a few minutes away.