Monbulk Produce Market
Make it, bake it, grow it: a monthly producers' market in a church picnic paddock in the middle of the Dandenongs.
About this market
The Monbulk Produce Market trades on the second Saturday of every month except January, in the picnic paddock beside St Georges Church on Main Road. Its rule for stallholders fits on a bumper sticker: make it, bake it, grow it. That single line does most of the sorting, and it is why the market is produce and craft rather than a general trash and treasure.
A market in the hiding place among the hills
Monbulk sits in the heart of the Dandenong Ranges, roughly 40 kilometres east of Melbourne, in soil that has grown food and flowers commercially for well over a century. The stalls reflect it: locally sourced fresh produce, handmade goods, baked items and fair trade products, with live music when conditions allow. It is a paddock market rather than a hall market, which makes it pleasant in good weather and worth checking the forecast for in bad. The winter timetable is shorter, closing at 1pm rather than 2pm, which is the sort of honest detail a market only publishes if it actually intends to keep to it.
Market at a glance
The church paddock setting is not incidental to the town's history. Monbulk was carved up for smallholders in the 1890s and the institutions that followed, school, store and churches, arrived within a decade and a half of each other. The market is trading on ground that has been community land since close to the beginning.
Monbulk began as a government experiment. In 1893 the district was created as the Dandenong Forest Village Settlement, with the land divided into 76 farms of ten acres each. A school followed in 1897, a store in 1900, and three churches were standing by 1906. The name itself is older: Monbolok or Monbolac, recorded as meaning a hiding place in the hills, traced back to its source by Jeannie Gunn, the author of We of the Never Never.
Practical notes for the day
Second Saturday, 9am to 2pm, and remember the 1pm close in winter. There is no market in January. Main Road is the through road, so parking spills into the surrounding streets on a busy month. Bring bags and cash. The Dandenongs are noticeably cooler and wetter than Melbourne, so a jacket is rarely wasted even in spring. This is Wurundjeri country.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When is the Monbulk Produce Market on?
- The second Saturday of every month except January, from 9am to 2pm. In winter it closes earlier, at 1pm.
- Where exactly is it held?
- In the St Georges Church picnic paddock at 75 Main Road, Monbulk, in the heart of the Dandenong Ranges about 40 kilometres east of Melbourne.
- What sort of stalls are there?
- The market works to a make it, bake it, grow it rule, so stalls run to locally sourced fresh produce, handmade goods, baked items and fair trade products. There is live music when the weather allows.