Eynesbury Market
Around 100 stalls set up on the fourth Sunday of the month in the grounds of an 1872 bluestone homestead, 40 minutes west of Melbourne.
About this market
Eynesbury Market trades in the grounds of a homestead begun in 1872 for Samuel Thomas Staughton, built from bluestone quarried on the family's nearby Exford estate and remodelled in 1885 by Melbourne architect Guyon Purchas. Around 100 stalls set up here on the fourth Sunday of each month, roughly 40 minutes west of Melbourne's CBD and surrounded by 288 hectares of grey box forest.
A hundred stalls on a pastoral estate
The market was built around a simple idea: give genuine farmers, growers and makers a place to sell direct to the people eating the food. That shows in the mix. Fruit and vegetable growers, jams, sauces, bread and cakes make up the core, with artisan craft stalls and a rotating set of food trucks filling the rest. Live entertainment and space for kids to run mean most people stay considerably longer than a shopping trip needs.
Market at a glance
The setting is the reason people drive out. Eynesbury is significant at state level as a large, highly intact rural estate that worked continuously as a pastoral and farming property from the squatting era until the turn of this century, and the market puts trestle tables in front of buildings that spent 130 years running sheep. Wandering the grounds is half the outing.
The bluestone in the homestead walls came from a quarry at the Staughton family's earlier Exford property, given to Samuel Thomas Staughton specifically so he could build here.
Worth knowing before the drive
Trading runs 9am to 2pm, which is a generous window for a monthly market and means arriving late still works. Parking is free: use the golf club car park first, then the roadside, then the paddocks past the market site when it is busy. Toilets are in the stable block towards the front of the cafe, with an accessible toilet and baby change room inside the homestead itself. It is an open rural site, so dress for wind and bring sun cover in summer.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When is Eynesbury Market held?
- The fourth Sunday of each month, 9am to 2pm, in the grounds of Eynesbury Homestead at 487 Eynesbury Road.
- Is there parking and does it cost anything?
- Entry is free and parking is free, with a car park at the homestead golf club, roadside spaces, and overflow paddocks just past the market site for busy months.
- Can I bring my dog?
- Yes, the market is dog friendly. There are public toilets in the stable block near the cafe and an accessible toilet with baby change inside the homestead.