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The Best Markets in Melbourne to Get Lost in Every Weekend
Explore the best markets in Melbourne and pick up everything from vintage clothes to eco-friendly home decor and fresh produce.
Ask for the best markets in Melbourne and a few names come up almost immediately: Queen Victoria Market, South Melbourne Market, Prahran Market, Rose Street Artists’ Market and Camberwell Sunday Market. They have earned the attention, but Melbourne’s market habit runs much deeper.
Saturday morning might mean tomatoes bought from the person who grew them; by afternoon, a 1970s coat is coming home from Coburg or a ceramic bowl is being wrapped in Fitzroy. Farmers, booksellers, vintage dealers and makers take over schoolyards, old wool stores, town halls, waterfront promenades and former junkyards across the city.
From century-old food halls and early-morning produce runs to new night markets with wine in hand, these are the Melbourne markets worth knowing right now.
In This Guide
The Best Farmers Markets in Melbourne
Slow Foodscray
Footscray has always understood that the best way to get to know a neighbourhood is by eating through it, preferably with something hot in one hand and a tote bag steadily filling in the other. Slow Foodscray arrives in Maddern Square this September with 30-plus stalls spanning takoyaki, crêpes, momos, gözleme, pastries, Victorian produce, pickles, spice pastes and sourdough, alongside live music and family activities. Run with Slow Food Melbourne, it returns on the first Sunday of every month, putting growers, street food and the neighbourhood’s many food cultures in the middle of Footscray CBD.
When: First Sunday of every month, 10am–2pm
Where: Maddern Square and Nicholson Street Mall, Footscray
Entry: Gold-coin donation
Regional Farmers Market at Abbotsford Convent
Second Saturdays begin early at Abbotsford Convent, when more than 45 Victorian farmers and producers spread through the grounds with fruit and vegetables, cheese, dairy, bread, preserves, honey and something sweet for the walk home. The stallholders shift with the seasons, so no two visits look quite alike. Once the basket is full, the gardens are right there for coffee, breakfast or eating the pastry that never stood a chance of making it home.
When: Second Saturday of every month, 9am–2pm
Where: Abbotsford Convent precinct, 1 St Heliers Street, Abbotsford
Entry: $2, with proceeds supporting Abbotsford Convent
Good to know: More than 45 stallholders; outdoor areas are wheelchair accessible
Carlton Farmers Market
A primary-school yard turns into Carlton North’s weekly pantry every Saturday morning. Carlton Farmers Market fills the grounds with Victorian tomatoes, apples, mushrooms, eggs, cheese, sourdough, honey, olive oil, pastries and cuts of meat, while dogs watch the dairy stalls with extraordinary concentration and children make for the playground. Coffee in one hand, shopping bags in the other, it has all the domestic pleasure of getting the week organised without setting foot inside a supermarket.
When: Every Saturday, 8am–1pm
Where: Carlton North Primary School, O’Grady Street entrance, Carlton North
Entry: Voluntary $2 donation, card only
Good to know: Dogs are welcome on leash, there’s a playground and outdoor seating, and the stallholder list changes weekly.
Slow Food Melbourne Farmers Markets
Some markets are for grazing; these are for knowing exactly who grew the tomatoes. Slow Food Melbourne’s long-running farmers markets bring Victorian growers, bakers, cheesemakers and small producers to West Footscray and Spotswood each month, with eggs, bread, honey, preserves, fruit and vegetables sold directly by the people who made or grew them. Ask about the sourdough starter, the orchard, the ferment or the season. Chances are the person behind the table has the answer.
Sitchu Tip: Stallholders rotate with the seasons, with a strong focus on Victorian produce and food sold directly by the people who grow or make it.
SloFo WeFo
When: Second Saturday of every month, 9am–1pm
Where: Johnson Reserve, 154 Essex Street, West Footscray
Slow Food Spotswood Farmers Market
When: Last Saturday of every month, 9am–1pm
Where: Spotswood Primary School, 600 Melbourne Road, Spotswood
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The Best Night Markets in Melbourne
Stay Soft Night Market
By mid-afternoon, the Collingwood Yards courtyard has changed personality. Clothes rails appear under the brick arches, records are being thumbed through, somebody is getting a stick-and-poke tattoo and a local designer is selling something you’ll almost certainly ask about later when they become enormous. Stay Soft Night Market corrals 70-plus independent makers, bakers, collectors and vintage sellers around food, local wine, tinnies and music. Dinner, drinks and shopping in one courtyard is an excellent Saturday.
When: Monthly; next market Saturday 12 September 2026, 2–9pm
Where: Collingwood Yards, 35 Johnston Street, Collingwood
Entry: Free
Good to know: Stay Soft keeps the stall mix deliberately independent, prioritising original, vintage, recycled and upcycled goods over mass-produced resale. Collingwood Yards has step-free access to the courtyard and accessible toilets.
Soul Night Market
Warm evenings suit Soul Night Market beautifully. Green Point Reserve turns gold, the city sits hazy across Port Phillip Bay and more than 60 makers and food stalls spread across the headland with jewellery, art, fashion and homewares alongside cocktails, wine and live soul music. Bring something to sit on, buy dinner from a truck and let the shopping happen before sunset disappears entirely.
When: Third Friday of November, January, February and March, 5–9pm
Where: Green Point Reserve, Esplanade, Brighton Beach
Good to know: Brighton Beach Station is directly opposite, with paid and street parking nearby.
Coburg Night Market
Coburg saves one of its biggest market nights for that strange pocket of December when nobody knows what day it is and eating outside feels entirely reasonable. For three nights, Coburg Night Market fills Bridges Reserve with smoking grills, local artists, makers, pop-up bars, DJs and bands under the trees. Come hungry and find a patch of grass. By the time the next set starts, there is a decent chance half the Christmas list has taken care of itself.
When: Thursday 17 and Friday 18 December, 5–10pm; Saturday 19 December 2026, 2–10pm
Where: Bridges Reserve, Bell Street, Coburg
Good to know: Entry is free; the 2026 food, maker and music line-up is still to be announced.
The Best Makers Markets in Melbourne
Melbourne Makers’ Market
For seven years, this stretch of Swanston Street sat behind construction hoardings. Now City Square is open again, trains are arriving underneath it, and ceramics, jewellery and small-run design are landing above ground. Melbourne Makers’ Market, from the Rose Street Artists’ Market team, launches with up to 40 emerging artists and designers and a new line-up each month. No resellers, no giant stall count, just a tightly edited little market in a city square learning its old habits again.
When: Selected Saturdays each month, 10am–3pm. Launches 19 September 2026
Where: City Square, Swanston Walk, Melbourne CBD
Entry: Free
Good to know: Each edition features up to 40 curated makers. Upcoming markets include a Melbourne Fringe edition on 31 October, Kraft Werks on 28 November and a Twilight Christmas Market on Friday 18 December. Town Hall Station opens directly onto the square.
Younghusband Market
Younghusband does half the work before a single stall appears. The historic Kensington woolstore still carries its red brick, old wool pulleys and cavernous rooms from more than a century ago; on the third Saturday of each month, those rooms fill with an entirely different cargo. Independent makers bring ceramics, jewellery, fashion, prints and art, with food and music threaded through the old building. Melbourne weather can carry on outside. This one happens under the roof.
When: Third Saturday of every month, 10am–3pm
Where: Younghusband, 2/50 Elizabeth Street, Kensington
Good to know: The market is completely undercover, with on-street parking nearby. Melbourne Farmers Market also hosts separate brunch markets at Younghusband on selected Sundays.
Southbank Makers Market
The Yarra does a lot of the staging here. Southbank Makers Market runs along the river promenade beneath Southgate, with Melbourne makers setting out ceramics, jewellery, illustration, art and homewares against the slightly surreal Sunday backdrop of rowers on the water, buskers on the pavement and the city rising directly opposite. It moved here after years beside Arts Centre Melbourne, and the new position suits it: less destination shopping, more something discovered halfway through a walk that was supposedly headed elsewhere.
When: Sundays, 10am–4pm
Where: Southgate Promenade, between Evan Walker Bridge and Princes Bridge, Southbank
Entry: Free
Good to know: The market is currently running through winter and into spring; it will not operate on Sunday 13 September 2026 due to Connor’s Run.
Kensington Market
Kensington Market feels unmistakably local because it is. Once a month, the old Town Hall fills with ceramics, knitted pieces, jewellery, prints, children’s clothes, soaps, candles and homemade treats, while live music drifts through the high-ceilinged rooms and coffee keeps everyone moving. It has supported neighbourhood makers since 2015, and the grand hall lends even the smallest purchase a little extra ceremony.
When: Selected Sundays each month, 10am–3pm
Where: Kensington Town Hall, 30–34 Bellair Street, Kensington
Entry: Free
Good to know: The market is indoors and accessible, and Kensington and Newmarket stations are both nearby. Check the official calendar before heading out, as some 2026 dates fall outside the usual third-Sunday pattern.
Rose Street Artists’ Market
The best thing about Rose Street Artists’ Market is that the person standing behind the table usually knows exactly how the thing on it came into existence. Since 2003, the former Fitzroy junkyard has spent its weekends in the hands of artists and designers, with up to 120 makers showing ceramics still bearing fingerprints, hand-cut jewellery, paintings, prints, fashion and pieces made in studios scattered across Melbourne. Questions are encouraged, commissions are possible and occasionally a five-minute chat about a vase becomes a surprisingly detailed education in glazing temperatures.
When: Every Saturday and Sunday, 10am–4pm
Where: 60 Rose Street, Fitzroy
Entry: Free
Good to know: Around 120 makers can appear across a weekend, and you can commission or buy works directly from many of the artists themselves. Tram routes 11 and 96 stop nearby.
Finders Keepers Market
Once the doors open at the Royal Exhibition Building, scale becomes the story. Finders Keepers puts more than 230 independent designers and makers beneath that enormous nineteenth-century dome, their stalls running from small-batch ceramics and jewellery to textiles, art, fashion, stationery and furniture. It has been doing this for 18 years, long before “shop small” became a useful caption, and part of its staying power is the sheer concentration of good design: tiny labels beside established studios, new graduates beside people who have been returning for years.
When: 9–11 October 2026; returns in July 2027
Where: Royal Exhibition Building, 9 Nicholson Street, Carlton
Entry: $7 daily or $10 weekend pass; children under 13 free
Good to know: Sunday begins with a low-sensory hour at 9am. The market is indoors, wheelchair accessible and entirely on one level.
Heide Makers’ Market
The stalls at Heide Makers’ Market have some fairly serious competition for attention: McGlashan Everist architecture, sculpture appearing between gum trees and the museum itself sitting just beyond the lawns. On market Saturdays, around 120 independent artists and designers join the landscape with ceramics, jewellery, textiles, art and small-run homewares, turning the sculpture park into something between an exhibition and an outdoor shop. Hot food appears among the makers too, and the grass has more than enough room for lunch afterwards.
When: Second Saturday of the month, 10am–3pm, September to May
Where: Heide Museum of Modern Art Sculpture Park, 7 Templestowe Road, Bulleen
Entry: Free to the market and sculpture park; museum admission separate
Good to know: Dogs are welcome on leash, parking is limited on site and in adjoining Banksia Park, and the market pauses over winter.
St Kilda Esplanade Market
For more than half a century, Sunday mornings on the Upper Esplanade have involved a long line of white marquees facing Port Phillip Bay. St Kilda Esplanade Market began in 1970 and now counts 131 stalls, with painters, jewellers, ceramicists, leatherworkers, knitters and other craftspeople selling work they have made themselves. The distinction matters here; this is not imported souvenir territory. Palm trees lean over the road, Luna Park sits behind it and the sea keeps flashing through the gaps between stalls, which is quite a lot of Melbourne iconography for one kilometre of Sunday shopping.
When: Every Sunday, 10am–4pm
Where: The Esplanade, St Kilda
Entry: Free
Good to know: Dogs are welcome on leash; trams 16 and 96 stop nearby. The market doesn’t trade on St Kilda Festival Sunday and may close in extreme weather.
The District Makers Market
Docklands weather has never been especially interested in anyone’s Sunday plans, which makes the fact that The District Makers Market happens entirely under cover feel unusually thoughtful. Once a month, the Rose Street crew fills The District with local makers selling jewellery, art, fashion, homewares, prints and edible things to carry around while deciding if another pair of earrings is technically necessary. Dogs are encouraged too, with treats and accessories among the stalls, so this is one Sunday shop nobody needs to be left at home for.
When: Last Sunday of every month, 11am–4pm
Where: The District Docklands, 440 Docklands Drive, Docklands
Entry: Free
Good to know: Completely undercover and pet-friendly, with 90 minutes of free parking and tram routes 35, 70 and 86 stopping at The District. December 2026 markets fall on 13 and 20 December.
Melbourne Book Market
Second-hand booksellers know the good stuff is rarely the first thing you see. At Melbourne Book Market, more than 5,000 new and pre-loved titles fill A Shed at Queen Victoria Market each weekend, with literature, history and cookbooks beside art monographs, travel guides, children’s books, records and CDs. Established dealers sit alongside authors and illustrators, and the box under the table is often worth investigating. Nosiness pays.
When: Saturday and Sunday, 9am–4pm
Where: A Shed, Queen Victoria Market, Peel Street end, Melbourne
Entry: Free
Good to know: More than 5,000 titles are on offer each weekend, with established booksellers joined by rotating traders.
St Andrews Community Market
By nine on Saturday morning, St Andrews is already well underway. Chai is being poured, a busker has claimed the veranda, dogs nose around beneath tables and the gum trees carry on overhead. St Andrews Community Market has accumulated here since the early ’70s rather than ever feeling neatly designed: homegrown vegetables, sourdough, honey, pottery, seedlings, old clothes, herbal teas, beeswax candles, crystals and objects with histories longer than the transaction. Its charm is precisely that nobody appears to have polished the eccentricity out of it.
When: Every Saturday, 9am–2pm
Where: Corner Kangaroo Ground–St Andrews Road and Heidelberg–Kinglake Road, St Andrews
Entry: Free
Good to know: The market closes on Total Fire Ban days. Dogs are welcome on leash and cash is worth carrying, as not every stall takes card.
The Best Fashion Markets in Melbourne
Round She Goes
There are few shopping victories sweeter than finding the coat somebody else inexplicably decided they were finished with. Round She Goes gathers more than 60 handpicked sellers inside Coburg Town Hall three times a year, their racks loaded with vintage from the 1940s onwards, preloved designer pieces, excellent high-street cast-offs, handbags, jewellery and accessories. Prices can start around $10, there are change rooms for the inevitable try-on, and coffee and baked goods wait inside for the point at which one more rack becomes absolutely necessary.
When: Three Sundays each year, 10am–3pm. Next market: 13 September 2026
Where: Coburg Town Hall, 90 Bell Street, Coburg
Entry: $4, cash or card
Good to know: Completely indoors and wheelchair accessible, with free parking behind the Town Hall. Pets aren’t permitted.
Fitzroy Market
Rose Street has two personalities on Saturdays. Fitzroy Market fills the old Fitzroy Mills site with vintage, records, jewellery, flowers and handmade pieces, while the neighbouring Fitzroy Mills Market brings bread, pantry goods, produce and growers into the mix. One minute it’s denim and silver rings, the next it’s tomatoes and sourdough. Sundays return the focus to vintage and second-hand finds. It is wardrobe and pantry territory sharing the same patch of Fitzroy pavement.
When: Saturday, 9am–3pm; Sunday, 10am–3pm
Where: 75 Rose Street, Fitzroy
Entry: Free
Good to know: The Fitzroy Mills produce market runs alongside Fitzroy Market on Saturdays from 9am–2pm.
Camberwell Sunday Market
Camberwell has been setting the alarm early for this one since 1976, and half a century later the appeal remains wonderfully unchanged: rows of trestle tables, boxes of records, old crockery, racks of coats, dog-eared books, watches, lamps and objects whose original purpose may require a conversation with the person selling them. Camberwell Sunday Market is less about arriving with a list than being willing to follow a hunch, preferably before the serious collectors have already done a lap. A hot jam doughnut should feature at some point, because certain Melbourne traditions have earned the right to stay exactly as they are.
When: Every Sunday, 7am–12.30pm
Where: Camberwell Junction car park, corner Station Street and Market Place, Camberwell
Entry: Gold coin donation
Good to know: The market runs rain, hail or shine, with proceeds supporting Balwyn Rotary’s community and humanitarian projects. Free all-day parking is available on Inglesby Road, around five minutes away.
Fashion Thrift Society
Fashion Thrift Society has outgrown ordinary thrift-market territory. More than 250 sellers take over MSAC with vintage denim, sportswear, designer resale and independent labels, but half the fun now happens between the racks: tattoos, tooth gems, piercings, permanent jewellery, nail stations, tarot, vinyl and DJs running all day. Go early for the best wardrobe archaeology; arrive later if you’d rather bargain. By 3pm, entry is free and sellers are usually much more ready to make a deal.
When: Selected dates throughout the year, 10am–4pm. Next: 3 October and 19 December 2026
Where: Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre, 30 Aughtie Drive, Albert Park
Entry: Ticket prices vary by arrival time; October tickets range from $15 at 10am to free entry from 3pm
Good to know: More than 250 curated stalls span vintage, preloved, designer and independent brands, with food trucks and DJs alongside the shopping.
The Best Food & Drink Markets in Melbourne
CERES Market
CERES has always been very good at turning a simple Saturday errand into half a day. You arrive for vegetables and sourdough, then there is a ceramic cup to inspect, a rack of vintage, somebody playing music nearby, children making a determined escape towards the playground and, somewhere below the Grocery, rows of herbs and vegetables growing at Honey Lane. On the first and third Saturday of each month, CERES Market folds local makers, artists, secondhand sellers and small labels into all of this, with handmade wares, vintage finds and things made in Melbourne rather than shipped halfway around the world. Come hungry; the bakery and Merri Cafe are right there, ripe for the picking.
When: First and third Saturday of every month, 12pm–6pm
Where: CERES, corner Roberts and Stewart streets, Brunswick East
Entry: Free
Good to know: The market mixes indoor and outdoor stalls and runs in most weather. The CERES Grocery & Bakery is open from 9am on weekends, and the No.96 tram stops a couple of minutes away.
Queen Victoria Market
Queen Vic has been part of Melbourne life since 1878, which is long enough for generations to have their own route through it. Queen Victoria Market still sprawls across two city blocks, from pyramids of whatever fruit is having its moment to the marble counters of the 1927 Dairy Produce Hall, loaded with cheese, salami, olives and things bought by weight and eaten before they make it home. There are more than 600 traders now, but certain habits remain beautifully difficult to improve upon: the early produce run, a bratwurst eaten standing up, and a paper bag of hot jam doughnuts from the American Doughnut Kitchen leaving a dusting of sugar down somebody’s coat.
When: Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 6am–3pm; Saturday, 6am–4pm; Sunday, 9am–4pm
Where: Queen Victoria Market, Queen and Victoria streets, Melbourne
Entry: Free
Good to know: Specialty shopping opens from 9am on all market days. The market is closed Monday and Wednesday, with public-holiday hours varying.
South Melbourne Market
South Melbourne Market has been feeding this corner of Melbourne since 1867, and some Saturdays seem to require several breakfasts to get through it. Oysters are shucked at Aptus, Turkish mums roll gözleme to order at Köy, burrata is split open at UGO and Agathé’s pastry counter has a habit of derailing whatever sensible shopping list existed on arrival. Beyond lunch are fishmongers, butchers, grocers, delis, flowers and bottles for later; the trick is accepting that the groceries may become secondary somewhere around the first croissant.
When: Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, 8am–4pm; Friday, 8am–5pm
Where: Coventry and Cecil streets, South Melbourne
Entry: Free
Good to know: The main market is closed Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, although selected Coventry Street traders now open on Thursdays and several Cecil Street restaurants trade beyond market hours.
Prahran Market
Prahran has been buying dinner here since 1864, and Prahran Market still rewards anyone who arrives with a loose shopping list and a willingness to be talked into things. There is Maker & Monger’s seven-metre window of cheese, whole fish and sashimi at Claringbold’s, spanakopita and weekend loukoumades from Sweet Greek, flowers, wild mushrooms, butcher-paper parcels and vegetables that make whatever was planned for dinner feel suddenly inadequate. On weekends, live music drifts through the market from midday and the grocery run has a habit of acquiring lunch, several snacks and a much more ambitious evening ahead of it.
When: Tuesday and Thursday, 7am–4pm; Friday and Saturday, 7am–5pm; Sunday, 8am–4pm
Where: 163 Commercial Road, South Yarra
Entry: Free
Good to know: Closed Monday and Wednesday. Live music runs Saturdays and Sundays from 12pm–3pm, and individual trader hours can vary.
Preston Market
Preston Market still has edges, thankfully. More than 100 traders operate beneath its sheds, and the pleasure comes from how little the categories behave: fishmongers beside spice shops, bakeries beside butchers, kitchenware next to flowers, fruit stacked high enough to require some engineering and lunch arriving in several languages. Preston Market has served the north since 1970, but it has never calcified into heritage theatre; people are here because they actually need coriander, a kilo of mussels, twenty dumpling wrappers or something good for dinner.
Sitchu Tip: Contraband Coffee Traders is still a very good first stop, although the newly opened Publique Bakery now makes a strong case for arriving early too.
When: Wednesday and Thursday, 8am–3pm; Friday, 8am–6pm; Saturday and Sunday, 8am–3pm
Where: 30A The Centreway, Preston
Entry: Free
Good to know: Closed Monday and Tuesday. Parking is free for the first two hours on market days, then $2.50 per additional hour, up to four hours.
Footscray Market
The seafood counters tell you almost everything you need to know about Footscray Market: oysters opened to order at Yue Kong, mud crab and calamari at Gold Star, whole fish gleaming on ice at John & Kevin’s, a stall that has managed for more than 40 years without so much as a freezer. Then the aisles keep going: tropical fruit, bundles of unfamiliar herbs, goat, pork belly, wafer-thin hotpot meat, Filipino longganisa, spices, noodles and enough ingredients to send dinner in an entirely new direction. Footscray cooks well because it shops well, and this remains one of the best places in Melbourne to understand why.
When: Tuesday and Wednesday, 7am–4pm; Thursday to Saturday, 7am–5pm
Where: 18 Irving Street, Footscray
Entry: Free
Good to know: Closed Sunday and Monday. Footscray Station is directly opposite, and the market has more than 800 undercover car spaces.
Melbourne’s best markets make a sincere argument for leaving the shopping centre behind. Once the tote bags are full, keep the weekend going with our guides to Melbourne’s best bookstores and the city’s best places to find pre-loved vintage furniture. Between second-hand books, old timber and one more market stall, Melbourne shopping is far more interesting when somebody else found it first.
