Farmers' Market Bairnsdale

The Farmers' Market Bairnsdale sets up from 8am on the first Saturday of every month at the Howitt Park Bowls Club on McEacharn Street, and it runs hail or shine, which in East Gippsland is a claim worth making. It also turns up in listings under the name Bairnsdale Farmers and Makers Market.

East Gippsland is a big catchment for one morning

The region behind this market runs from the high country down to the Gippsland Lakes, and the stall list shows the range: lamb sausages, smoked meats and venison, walnuts from Dargo up in the mountains, goats' milk and cheese, olive oil, organic breads, herbal and Himalayan teas. Bairnsdale is the service town for a large and thinly settled area, so the first Saturday is one of the few mornings when producers scattered across it are all in one place at once.

Howitt Park sits on the eastern side of the Mitchell River, on the way into Bairnsdale from the Princes Highway, with the bowls club as the anchor. There is room to park and room to walk, and the riverside setting means the market reads as a morning out rather than a shopping stop.

Plan your visit around the morning

First Saturday, from 8am, and sources disagree about whether it winds up at noon or an hour later, so treat the early part of the morning as the reliable window and check with the organisers before a long drive. Bring your own bags and cash, since not every grower at a market this size takes cards. If you are working through East Gippsland's markets across a month, note that the fourth Sunday puts a much larger general market on the same ground, so the two are worth planning as separate trips rather than one. This is Gunaikurnai country.