Drouin Craft and Produce Market

The Rotary Club of Drouin formed in 1954, and by 1961 it was established enough to sponsor the charter of a neighbouring club at Pakenham. Seventy years on, the club's craft and produce market is still one of the fixtures of the West Gippsland calendar, taking over Civic Park on Young Street on the third Saturday of every month from 8am.

A park in the middle of town rather than a showground on the edge

Civic Park is a straightforward advantage. The market sits inside the Drouin town centre rather than out at a showground, so the stalls, the shops and the cafes all work as one Saturday morning. The mix is what the name promises: local growers and producers on one side, hand-made craft on the other, with a food and coffee run through the middle. Entry costs nothing, there is a car park on site and public toilets, the ground is level and accessible, and dogs are welcome on a lead. That combination makes it a straightforward morning with a pram or a dog rather than a logistics exercise, which is not always true of a country market held on a showground paddock.

Because it is a Rotary market rather than a commercial one, the takings do not stop at the gate. The club's project list over the decades reads like an inventory of the town.

Good to know before you go

Check the calendar rather than assuming a weekend, because this is a third-Saturday market and there is nothing on the other three. Trading runs 8am to 1pm, and as with most produce markets the best of the fresh stalls goes early. Park in the Civic Park car park or on the surrounding streets. Drouin sits on the Princes Freeway about an hour and a quarter east of Melbourne, and the Rotary club meets on Tuesday evenings in town if you want to ask about a stall.