Rokeby Market

Rokeby Market is the longest running market in Gippsland, and some of its first-ever stallholders are still setting up on the second Saturday of the month. It fills the Rokeby Recreation Reserve on Brandy Creek Road with around 100 stalls, trading 8am to 12.30pm from September through to May.

Make it, bake it, grow it, breed it

That four-part rule is the market's constitution, and every stallholder has to meet it. There are no resellers and no imported-stock tables: what is on offer was made, baked, grown or bred by the person selling it. Makers, producers and breeders come from across Gippsland and down from Melbourne, and the resulting spread runs from plants and fresh produce to baked treats, artisan crafts, handmade clothing, jewellery, beauty products and prepared food.

Nine market days a year is a small number, and it shapes the atmosphere. This is not a weekly errand for the surrounding district, it is a monthly event people plan around, which is why 100 stalls can be filled reliably in a village the size of Rokeby. The market is run by the Rokeby Reserve and Hall Committee, so the gold coin donation at the gate and the $35 stallholder fee both go back into the reserve, the hall and the market itself.

Good to know before you go

The winter closure is the thing to plan around. There is no market in June, July or August, so a trip in that window is a wasted drive, and the September restart is the busiest date on the calendar. The second Saturday is fixed, which makes it easier to remember than markets that float.

Bring cash and a bag. Dogs are welcome on a lead. The reserve has toilets inside the hall and outside, including accessible facilities, and there is space to sit. Rokeby sits in the Baw Baw Shire in West Gippsland, close enough to Warragul and Drouin to be an easy detour off the Princes Highway, and the reserve setting means the whole thing is grass underfoot rather than bitumen.