Nunawading Arts & Craft Market

Arts Nunawading Inc was founded in 1964 by local art groups, and six decades later the market it runs is still the engine behind its funding. More than 100 stalls set up inside and outside the Whitehorse Civic Centre at 379-397 Whitehorse Road on the fourth Sunday of the month, and the money raised goes into cultural and visual arts initiatives across the City of Whitehorse.

Handmade, not imported, and under a roof if the weather turns

The stall list runs to handmade art and crafts, jewellery, ceramics, knitwear, aromatherapy products and greeting cards, alongside fresh produce, seasonal berries and gourmet food, with hot refreshments available through the day. The indoor-and-outdoor layout is the practical advantage over most Melbourne monthlies: a wet fourth Sunday moves shoppers inside rather than cancelling the market. Admission is free and so is parking, which is not a given for a market this size so close to the Eastern Freeway.

The season runs February to November, so January is the one month with no market at all. December is handled differently again, with a Christmas market that shifts to an afternoon slot of 1pm to 5pm rather than the usual morning hours. Arts Nunawading itself is a not-for-profit whose membership now spans a broad range of creative practices well beyond the art groups that started it, and the revenue the market raises is directed at cultural and visual arts initiatives across the municipality rather than back into the market's own running.

The Whitehorse Civic Centre address puts the market on the Whitehorse Road corridor in the middle of Nunawading, which is what makes the free parking meaningful: a hundred-plus stall market on a main road would normally mean circling for a space or paying for one. The same civic site carries a second monthly market on a different weekend: the Whitehorse Farmers Market, run by the city's Rotary clubs on the second Sunday, which is produce rather than craft.

Good to know before you go

There is no market in January, and the December Christmas market runs in the afternoon rather than the morning, so both ends of the year need checking before you go. On a normal fourth Sunday, doors are 9am to 2pm and free parking means arriving mid-morning is workable rather than a gamble. Bring cash for the smaller craft tables even though the bigger stalls take cards.