Laverton Market

Laverton Market started in 1974 on Boundary Road in Brooklyn, trading under the name Rubble & Riches Market as a predominantly secondhand affair. It moved to its current 14-hectare site on Leakes Road, Laverton North, in 1984, and has kept growing ever since into one of the largest weekend markets in Melbourne's western suburbs.

Two indoor pavilions, plus a car-boot sprawl

The scale here is genuinely large: around 1,400 stalls, roughly 1,000 nearby car spaces, and two indoor pavilions of 3,500 square metres each housing permanent lock-up stalls selling everything from clothing to hardware and fresh produce. The outdoor section is where the market's original secondhand character survives most clearly, with stallholders selling straight from their vehicles.

More than 20 food vans keep visitors fed across what's genuinely a multi-hour visit for anyone trying to cover the whole site. It's one of the few markets in this directory charging a small entry fee, a reasonable trade-off given the scale of what's on offer, and the site also hosts occasional special events such as seasonal Plant & Garden Fairs on top of its regular weekend trade.

Market at a glance

1974Founded, as the Rubble & Riches Market

14haSite size

1,400+Stalls

$2/$5Entry per person / per car

Good to know before you go

Entry costs $2 per person or $5 per car, worth knowing before arriving with cash on hand. Weekday visits aren't an option since it only trades Saturday and Sunday, 7am to 4pm, and the two undercover pavilions make it a workable wet-weather option even when the outdoor stalls are affected by rain.

Given the sheer size of the site, roughly a third the area of Melbourne's CBD grid, comfortable shoes are worth it: reviewers describe genuinely needing a couple of hours to walk both pavilions and the outdoor section without rushing.

Laverton North itself is a predominantly industrial suburb, bordered by Derrimut, Truganina, Altona North and Laverton, which means the market trades from the same light-industrial pocket as its warehouse neighbours rather than a retail strip, an unglamorous setting that comes with plenty of nearby car parking as a genuine trade-off.