CERES Market
A fortnightly Saturday market on the old Brunswick East quarry site, held inside an environment park built on reclaimed land.
About this market
CERES is a park first and a market venue second, which is why this market feels unlike the others in Melbourne's inner north. It runs fortnightly on Saturdays from 9am to 2pm across the CERES Community Environment Park site in Brunswick East, with the stalls threaded between the gardens, the nursery and the grocery rather than lined up in a car park.
Makers and second-hand, in among the gardens
The stall mix is split between people making things and people reselling them, which is a combination that usually does not work and here does. You get ceramics, textiles, prints and jewellery on one side and vintage clothing, records, books and genuine flea market miscellany on the other. The setting does a lot of the heavy lifting: this is a market you can walk slowly, with a coffee, alongside a creek, and the pace is why stallholders describe it as relaxed rather than busy.
Market at a glance
The fortnightly rhythm is worth planning around. Weekly markets are easy to be casual about; a fortnightly one has enough gap that stallholders actually restock between dates, and the second-hand side in particular turns over properly rather than recycling last week's unsold rack. It also means the market is never the whole reason to come, because the grocery, nursery and cafe are open regardless.
The ground under the stalls has had three previous lives. Through the first half of the twentieth century this stretch of the Merri Creek was worked as a Chinese market garden. From 1945 it became a bluestone quarry, and after the quarry closed the hole was used as a council tip. CERES was established on the reclaimed land in 1982, which means every garden bed on the site was built on top of landfill.
Good to know before you go
Check which Saturday. The market runs fortnightly, so a fifty-fifty chance is not good enough odds for the drive. Once you are there, entry is free, the site is dog friendly and there is a cafe and an organic grocery open alongside the stalls, which makes it a genuinely easy few hours rather than a quick lap. Parking around Roberts and Stewart Streets is residential and tight, so the number 1 tram or a bike along the Merri Creek trail is the better approach. Bring bags and cash for the flea side. This is Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung country.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When is the CERES Market on?
- Fortnightly on Saturdays, 9am to 2pm, at CERES Community Environment Park on the corner of Roberts and Stewart Streets, Brunswick East. It is every second Saturday rather than every one, so check the date.
- Was this called something else before?
- Yes. It ran for years as the CERES Maker's and Flea Market and is now simply the CERES Market. Same site, same fortnightly Saturday, same mix of makers and second-hand.
- What else is on site?
- CERES runs an organic grocery, a cafe, a nursery and working demonstration gardens across roughly 4.5 hectares, all open on market days. The site is dog friendly.