Bicheno Community Market
A summer-season Sunday market in a park above Waubs Bay, named for a woman who swam two men out of a shipwreck.
About this market
The Bicheno Community Market runs the third Sunday of the month from November to March, 10am to 1pm, in Lions Park above Waubs Bay. Five markets a year and a three hour window makes it a small operation, but the setting does a great deal of the work: the park looks directly out over the bay on one of the most photographed stretches of the Tasmanian east coast.
Seafood, jam and organic produce
The stall list is short and local: organic fruit and vegetables, homemade jams, baked goods and locally sourced seafood, from stallholders mostly drawn from the surrounding area with a few travelling in from further afield. Seafood on a market table is not a given anywhere, and in a town whose entire history runs through its harbour it is the thing worth turning up for. The market runs only across the warmer months, which is standard for an outdoor east coast market and matches when Bicheno's population swells with visitors. A Christmas Twilight Market runs separately before Christmas, on a Saturday, alongside Carols in the Park.
Market at a glance
A 10am start is late for a produce market and right for this one: it is aimed at people who are on the coast for the weekend rather than locals shopping before breakfast, and three hours in a park is about as long as a market of this size can hold a crowd.
The bay the market overlooks is named after an Aboriginal Tasmanian woman. Wauba Debar, born around 1792, was kidnapped as a teenager and enslaved by sealers, the trade that had made this harbour a whaling and sealing base as early as 1803. When a ship was wrecked about a kilometre offshore in a storm, she swam out and brought two men to shore one at a time, first her husband and then the other sealer. Waubs Bay and Waubs Harbour both carry her name. Local settlers raised the money for a headstone on her grave in 1855, and the grave is now on the Tasmanian Heritage register.
Practical notes
Third Sunday, November to March, 10am to 1pm. Confirm the date before travelling, since five markets a year is easy to miss and the schedule is subject to availability. Bring cash and bags. Lions Park is central and parking is on Burgess Street and around the foreshore. The park is open and exposed to the sea, so a windproof layer is worth having even in January. Bicheno is a natural stop between Freycinet and St Helens, which is how most visitors arrive. This is Paredarerme country.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When is the Bicheno Community Market on?
- The third Sunday of the month from November through to March, 10am to 1pm, at Lions Park overlooking Waubs Bay. It is a summer season market and does not run through the Tasmanian winter.
- What is sold there?
- Organic fruit and vegetables, homemade jams, baked goods and locally sourced seafood, from stallholders drawn mostly from the local area with some travelling in.
- Is there anything on outside the season?
- Yes. A Christmas Twilight Market runs before Christmas, held on a Saturday and combined with Carols in the Park.