Caulfield Food & Craft Market

The Caulfield Racecourse Reserve is the largest piece of public open space in Melbourne's southern suburbs, and on the first Sunday of the month the Rotary Club of Caulfield puts a market on it. Free entry, free parking, and a train station across the road: the practical barriers that stop people going to markets have all been removed here.

Food-led, with the makers alongside

The billing puts food first and the market delivers on it: fresh produce, baked goods, deli items, liquor and street food to eat there. Craft and makers fill out the rest rather than dominating, which gives the whole thing more of a Sunday-provisions feel than a browse-and-buy-a-candle one.

Free parking this close to the city is worth a sentence of its own. Most inner-southeast markets ask you to circle residential streets for twenty minutes first. Here the reserve absorbs it.

Good to know before you go

January is the month off, so a first Sunday in January is the one date that will not work. Otherwise, arrive early if produce is the aim and later if you are there to eat, because the food stalls hit their stride mid-morning. Drivers want the Kambrook Road entrance. Bring bags and a card or cash either way. Five hours is a comfortable window and the reserve has the space to sit down in, which not every market offers.