Postal Lane Markets
A laneway market at Melbourne's GPO that changes character by the day: food on Friday nights, makers across the weekend.
About this market
The Postal Lane Markets run three days a week in the laneway beside Melbourne's GPO, and they are effectively two different markets sharing an address. Friday from 4pm to 8pm is a food market aimed at the after-work crowd. Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 6pm belong to local artists, creators and makers.
Two markets, one laneway
The Friday session leans into produce and provisions: local growers, chefs and connoisseurs with cheeses, jams, sweets, sauces and condiments, gourmet delicacies, artisan bread and pastries, worked around the lights and the noise of a Melbourne summer evening in the middle of the city. The weekend sessions swap that out entirely for design, with makers filling Postal Lane and the Elizabeth Street Colonnade, and the pitch is explicitly about meeting the person who made the thing rather than just buying it. Live music and performance run across both formats. Being wedged between the GPO and the Bourke Street Mall means the market sits in the busiest pedestrian corridor in the city and does not have to work to find a crowd.
Market at a glance
Eight hours on a Saturday is an unusually long window for a makers market, and it changes the rhythm: there is no need to arrive early, and the laneway is at its best in the late afternoon when the light drops behind the colonnade.
The building the market runs beside came within an ace of being lost. The GPO's foundation stone was laid on the Bourke and Elizabeth corner in 1859 and the two-storey building was finished in 1867, with the mansarded third storey and enlarged clock tower added in 1887. The American architect Walter Burley Griffin, better known for designing Canberra, redesigned the sorting hall in one of his first Australian projects. On 10 September 2001 an electrical fault started a fire that severely damaged the interior, especially the postal hall. Australia Post leased the complex to developers afterwards, and it reopened as a retail building in 2004.
Practical notes
Friday 4pm to 8pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am to 6pm. Pick the day for the market you actually want, because Friday and the weekend share almost no stallholders. Bring a card. Do not drive: the GPO sits at the top of the Bourke Street Mall, a minute from Melbourne Central station and inside the free tram zone, and CBD parking on a weekend is both scarce and expensive. Postal Lane is undercover in parts and open in others, so weather affects some of the stalls but never all of them. This is Wurundjeri country.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When are the Postal Lane Markets on?
- Friday from 4pm to 8pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 6pm, in Postal Lane beside Melbourne's GPO at 350 Bourke Street.
- Is it the same market each day?
- No. Friday evenings are given over to food: local growers, chefs and producers with cheeses, jams, sweets, sauces, condiments, gourmet goods, artisan bread and pastries. Saturdays and Sundays are for local artists, creators and makers.
- How far does the market stretch?
- Through Postal Lane and along the Elizabeth Street Colonnade and terrace, so it wraps around two sides of the GPO building.