Jung Market

Jung Market opened on 28 April 1990 with 34 stalls. Thirty-six years later about 80 stallholders make the trip to a recreation reserve beside the Yarriambiack Creek, in a Wimmera hamlet roughly 20 kilometres north-east of Horsham, on the last Saturday of every month. Very few country markets more than double in size and stay put for that long.

What fills a reserve on the last Saturday

The stall mix is the broad kind that a monthly country market builds up over decades rather than the tight produce focus of an accredited farmers' market. Fresh fruit and vegetables, honey and nuts, plants and herbs, preserves and home-baked cakes sit alongside clothing, antiques, beauty products, arts and crafts, pet supplies and the bric-a-brac tables that reward a slow lap. Hot food is a fixture, with jam doughnuts, fairy floss and a sausage sizzle, and a jumping castle or train rides often run for the kids. Local charities take spaces too, which is part of how a market this size keeps its volunteers.

The reserve setting does a lot of the work. Stalls spread out on grass under trees on the creek bank rather than squeezing into a car park, there is room to park on the grounds, and the whole thing runs on volunteers from the reserve's committee of management. Jung itself is small enough that the market is comfortably the biggest thing that happens there each month, and stallholders travel in from across the Wimmera and the Grampians to be part of it.

Before you drive out

Check the date rather than assuming, because "last Saturday" can be the 25th or the 31st and December is the third Saturday instead. Entry is free and the market runs 9am to 1pm, which for a market of this size means the middle two hours are the busy ones. Bring cash, since not every stallholder on a grass reserve has reliable card reception, and bring a bag or a box if plants and produce are on the list. Horsham is the nearest town for fuel and food afterwards, about 20 minutes back down the highway.