Stratford Victoria Sunday Market

Most markets can be described as first Sunday or third Saturday. The Stratford Sunday Market cannot, because it only trades on a fifth Sunday, 9am to 1pm, at 18 Raymond Street. A fifth Sunday only exists in months that happen to start on the right day, which is four or five times in a year, and that makes this one of the rarest trading calendars of any market in Victoria.

A market that trades on a calendar quirk

The Wellington Shire's own visitor listing puts it plainly: a variety of stallholders, on the fifth Sunday of the month, from 9am to 1pm. The organiser is the 1st Stratford Scout Group, so the market is a fundraiser rather than a business, and stall enquiries go to a single Scout group email address, [email protected], rather than to a booking platform. What that cadence means in practice is that the market is an event rather than a routine. There is no monthly habit to fall into, no first-weekend-of-the-month rhythm for locals to plan around, and every date is one somebody has to look up.

The cadence is worth understanding before you plan around it.

Good to know before you go

Look up the date first, and do it properly. This is the one market where "it's on the last weekend, isn't it?" will get you a quiet main street: a fifth Sunday and a last Sunday are the same date only in the months that have one, and in every other month the last Sunday is the fourth. The market sets up at 18 Raymond Street in Stratford, in the Wellington Shire in Gippsland, so parking is street parking and the rest of the town is within a short walk. Bring cash for a market this size. If you want a site, email the Scout group rather than turning up with a table, because a market with only a handful of dates a year fills its space in advance.