Richmond Village Market

Richmond sits in the Coal River Valley about half an hour from Hobart, and its main street is dominated by a bridge whose foundation stone was laid on 11 December 1823. The Richmond Village Market runs every Sunday in the Richmond Hall on that same street, which means the market is a few hundred metres from the oldest stone span bridge in Australia.

Makers rather than growers

This is an artists' and makers' market, and the stall list says so plainly: handmade jewellery, pottery, paintings and photography from people working in the district, with locally made honey, baked goods and gin covering the edible side. It is not a produce market and does not pretend to be. What it is instead is the thing a heritage village needs, a reason for visitors to step off the bridge and into the hall, and a Sunday outlet for makers who would otherwise be selling online or driving into Hobart.

The 10am to 3pm window is unusually civilised for an Australian market, and it is set that way for a reason. Richmond runs on day-trip traffic from Hobart, so the market opens when the first visitors arrive rather than at dawn, and it is still trading in the middle of the afternoon when a lot of markets have long since packed up.

Good to know before you go

Trading is 10am to 3pm every Sunday, so there is no need for an early start and no real risk of arriving too late. The hall is on Bridge Street in the middle of the village, and parking is on the street and the surrounding lanes, which fill up on a fine Sunday because the bridge draws its own crowd. Bring cash as well as a card. Being indoors makes this a reliable wet-weather option, which is not true of most Tasmanian markets. Allow time for the village itself: the bridge, the Coal River Valley cellar doors and the historic buildings along Bridge Street are all within a short walk, and most visitors end up staying longer than they planned. Richmond is on Mumirimina country.