Pearcedale Market (3rd Sat Each Month)
A community market at the Pearcedale public hall built around sustainable living, with workshops running alongside the stalls.
About this market
The Pearcedale Market trades on the third Saturday of every month, 8am to 12 noon, at the Pearcedale Public Hall beside the recreation reserve. What separates it from the dozens of other community markets ringing Melbourne's south east is the organising idea: sustainable and local living, carried through the stall mix rather than stated on a banner.
The workshops are part of the market, not a sideline
The market programmes talks and hands-on sessions on subjects like organic growing, permaculture and bread making, and rotates a different sustainability theme through the year. The trading side is what you would expect from a good village market, with fresh local fruit and vegetables, plants, handmade cards and goods, soy candles, lollies, bric-a-brac, bakery goods and a sausage sizzle. The combination means people arrive to learn something as often as to buy something, and the four-hour window on a Saturday morning does more work than the stall count would suggest.
Market at a glance
The venue is the public hall and its grounds, next to the football oval, which puts the market at the centre of a small town rather than on a highway verge. Pearcedale sits between Cranbourne and the top of the Mornington Peninsula, close enough to both that the market draws from a wider area than the village itself.
A produce swap runs alongside the stalls, which is the part that separates this from an ordinary village market. Gardeners bring whatever their patch has produced too much of and trade it for something else, no money involved, so the surplus lemons and zucchini that would otherwise be given away over a fence end up circulating through the town instead.
A few practical notes
Third Saturday, 8am to 12 noon, and the produce goes early as it does at any market that opens at eight. Bring your own bags and some cash, and check the market's own channels before travelling in poor weather, since a good part of the trading happens outside the hall. Parking is around the hall and the recreation reserve. If you are combining markets across a weekend, note that Pearcedale sits within easy reach of both the Casey and Mornington Peninsula circuits without being on either, so it tends to be quieter than the coastal markets on the same date. This is Bunurong country.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When is the Pearcedale Market on?
- The third Saturday of every month, 8am to 12 noon, at the Pearcedale Public Hall on Baxter-Tooradin Road.
- Is there an entry fee?
- No, entry is free.
- What makes this market different from other community markets?
- It is organised around sustainable and local living. Alongside the usual stalls it runs a produce swap, talks and hands-on workshops on subjects like organic growing, permaculture and bread making.