Maldon Market: Hand Made, Home Grown
A strict grow-it-or-make-it market run by the neighbourhood centre, in a goldfields town the National Trust singled out in 1966.
About this market
The name is the entry condition. To sell produce at the Maldon Market you have to have grown it; to sell food you have to use locally sourced ingredients and hold a food handling certificate; and to sell as a maker your work needs a strong hand made or hand worked component, with real personal involvement in both the design and the production. That is a narrower gate than most monthly markets bother with, and it is why the tables here look different from a general market's.
Soap to soup, fruit to furniture
The neighbourhood centre's own description of the range is hard to improve on: soap to soup, fruit to furniture, plants to pants, jewellery to jumpers. In practice that means home-grown produce, homemade preserves and baked goods, seedlings and cut flowers, and craft that has been made rather than assembled. It is a monthly market of manageable size on the grounds of the Maldon Neighbourhood Centre, which runs it, so the money and the effort both stay in town.
Market at a glance
Maldon is the other half of the trip. Gold was found at the foot of Mount Tarrangower in December 1853 and the rush followed in 1854, and because the town neither boomed into a city nor emptied out entirely, the streetscape that money built is still standing. The railway station of 1884, the Grand Hotel of 1888 and the old post office of 1870 are all within a few blocks of the market.
In 1966 the National Trust of Victoria classified Maldon as Australia's first Notable Town, on the strength of the variety of building styles preserved from its mining decades. The market's own corner, Church and Edwards Streets, sits inside that precinct.
Good to know before you go
Second Sunday, 9am to 1.30pm, on the corner of Church and Edwards Streets. It runs rain, hail or shine, with the single exception of a Code Red fire danger day, when it does not go ahead at all, so check before you drive in high summer. Come early for produce, which is the category that genuinely sells out when everything on the table had to be grown by the person selling it. Bring bags and cash, and leave time to walk Main Street afterwards, since the whole reason the town looks the way it does is that nobody knocked it down.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When is the Maldon Market on?
- The second Sunday of the month, 9am to 1.30pm, at the Maldon Neighbourhood Centre on the corner of Church and Edwards Streets.
- What are the rules for stallholders?
- Growers must sell produce they grew themselves, food vendors must use locally sourced ingredients and hold food handling certificates, and makers' products need a strong hand made or hand worked component.
- Does it run in bad weather?
- Yes, rain, hail or shine. The one exception is a Code Red bushfire danger rating, when the market does not go ahead.