Traralgon Farmers Market - 4th Saturday of Every Month
A Gippsland produce market that began life in Tyers, moved to Traralgon in 2005, and has been run as a Lions Club fundraiser since 2008.
About this market
The market that fills Kay Street Gardens on the fourth Saturday of the month did not start in Traralgon. It began as the Tyers Farmers' Market, and Latrobe City transferred it into Traralgon in 2005, which is when the local Lions Club first got involved. In 2008 the council handed the club the market outright to run as a community fundraiser, and the Lions have run it since, close to doubling the number of vendors along the way.
Gippsland produce under the elms
Kay Street Gardens gives the market shade and lawn rather than a car park, and the stall list reflects a region that grows a lot of its own food. Around 60 sites carry fruit and vegetables, local meat, cakes and snacks, ready-to-eat hot food, gourmet jams and salad dressings, plants and craft supplies. Live music and free face painting run alongside it, which is the kind of detail that turns a shopping trip into a morning out. The market's standing promise is that it happens rain, hail or shine.
Market at a glance
Because the club runs it as a fundraiser rather than a business, the rules around stalls are unusually explicit. Community groups are capped at two spaces per market and have to apply a fortnight ahead, anyone selling raffle tickets has to produce public liability cover and their details under the Raffles and Bingo Act, and vendors bring their own tables, chairs and marquees. It is a market run by people who have filled in the paperwork themselves.
Kay Street Gardens hosts two separate markets on two different Saturdays. The Lions run this produce market on the fourth Saturday, and a craft market run by the Royal Exchange Hotel Cork Club sets up in the same gardens on the second Saturday between September and May.
Good to know before you go
Fourth Saturday is the rule that catches people out, since most monthly markets sit earlier in the month. Get there closer to 8am than to 1pm if produce is the point of the trip, because the best of the fruit and veg moves early. Bring cash as backup, bring a bag, and expect the gardens to be busy with people who have driven in from across Gippsland rather than just from town. If you miss it, the same gardens host the REH Cork Club Craft Market two Saturdays earlier during its September to May season, which is a different market with a different operator.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When is Traralgon Farmers Market held?
- The fourth Saturday of every month, 8am to 1pm, in Kay Street Gardens. The market runs rain, hail or shine.
- Who runs the market?
- The Lions Club of Traralgon. Latrobe City handed the club the chance to run it as a community fundraiser in 2008, and the funds raised go back into local Lions community work.
- What sort of stalls are there?
- Around 60, covering fruit and vegetables, meat, cakes and snacks, hot food, gourmet preserves and dressings, plants and handmade goods from Gippsland producers.