Kingborough Market

The Kingborough Market runs on a Wednesday, which in a state where almost every market claims a Saturday or a Sunday makes it genuinely unusual. It trades from 11am to 3.30pm in Margate Hall on the Channel Highway, filling the middle of the week with fresh local produce rather than competing with the weekend circuit around Hobart.

A midweek produce market south of Hobart

The core of the market is farm produce: locally grown fruit and vegetables and whatever else the Channel district growers have brought in that week. Around it sit homemade food and meals to eat there or take home, plus handmade goods from local artisans, so the hall covers lunch as well as the shopping. Being indoors matters in this part of Tasmania, where a Wednesday in July is not an outdoor proposition, and it means the market keeps the same shape all year rather than shrinking through winter the way open air markets do. The Channel Highway runs south from Kingston down the D'Entrecasteaux coast, and Margate sits on it about twenty five minutes from central Hobart.

An 11am start is late for a produce market and it suits the format. This is a market people fold into a working Wednesday or a drive down the Channel, not one that asks for a dawn start, and the 3.30pm close leaves the afternoon intact.

Practical notes

Wednesdays, 11am to 3.30pm, at Margate Hall. Entry is free or a gold coin. Bring bags, and bring cash as well as a card, since a hall market of this size will not have every stall set up for tap. Parking is at the hall and along the highway. Margate is an easy run south from Hobart and the market pairs naturally with a drive further down the Channel towards Woodbridge and Cygnet, or with the Margate shops next door. This is Nuenonne country.