Evandale Sunday Market

Post

Subscribe

People visiting Northern Tasmania and want to enjoy a great market should visit the Evandale Markets. The market in the small, interesting village of Evandale is only 18.2 kilometres from Launceston and only five minutes from the airport. The markets are on every Sunday from 8am to 1.30pm. It is very popular with locals and tourists. They are held in Falls Park on Logan Road. There is a small entrance fee of 50 cents.



I usually try and visit the markets at least once on my yearly trips home to Tassie to visit family. I even helped my sister with her stall on my most recent visit in February this year. Over the years I have bought some great bargains, including clothes, jewellery and pottery.



There are a wide variety of goods including fresh organic fruit and vegetables, clothes, flowers, jewellery, antiques, old bottles, collectables, books, toys, bric a brac, old tools and handicrafts. It is exciting because you never know what treasures you will find.


Over the years, the food stalls have increased too and now there is a wide variety of delicious food, coffee and drinks. You can even pick up a live chook.
Some of the stallholders have been going to the markets for many years. There is an inside and outside area.



Children can enjoy a pony ride. John has been running pony rides at the market for many years. He says leading the pony cart around the market keeps him fit and is very good for his health. He loves his ponies and is thinking about introducing miniature donkeys if he can work out the best way to transport them. He was very busy taking lots of children around in his pony cart on the Sunday I was there. He told me he has a big birthday coming up and will have some surprises for children at the market that day.



On a previous visit, I saw a lot of John Campbell Pottery for sale. Growing up in Launceston I remember having a friend who lived in the street where the pottery had been so I was interested to see the beautiful pottery is now very collectable and sells for hundreds of dollars. Wished I had known about that back then.


John Campbell was born in 1857 in New Zealand and moved to Victoria with his family as a child. He became an apprentice at Bendigo Pottery and won medals in the 1879-80 Melbourne Juvenile Intercolonial Exhibition which rewarded his newly learned potter skills.

At around age 23 he moved to Tasmania and in 1881 in partnership with his father-in-law, bought Alfred Cornwell’s 'Victorian and Tasmanian Potteries Launceston pottery works.
John Campbell died in 1929 and the business was taken over by his eldest son, Colin who continued the business.



Lorraine is another regular market stallholder. She always has beautiful jewellery on her stall, which is inside the main hall. She told me she attends lots of garage sales and estate house content sales to obtain things to sell. Her prices are very reasonable so you can get a wonderful bargain. I’ve bought jewellery from her stall.

It was fairly quiet the Sunday we were there compared to most other times. Some of the stallholders told me it was because school had recently gone back and families were broke after buying school uniforms and books for their children.




The best time for stallholders is when popular football games are on in Launceston. Lots of people come from the mainland for the football and visit the market while they are over here.



I just missed the National Penny Farthing championship race, which was on the week after my visit. Since 1983, the Evandale Village Fair and National Penny Farthing Championships have built up a reputation for holding the most competitive Penny Farthing races in the world. The Evandale Village Fair is held annually in February and features a full program of Penny Farthing bicycle racing featuring the National Penny Farthing Championship. I met Nigel Lazenby who was promoting the Penny Farthing race with a Penny Farthing at the markets.



Matthew Simms is one of the local characters at this market. Matthew carves and paints dolls with wooden bodies and wooden joints and makes clothes for them. He also paints, and his unique artworks have been described as having a kind of classic impressionist style. He has had some of his paintings displayed at an art gallery in Hobart. I’m sure they would be a good investment. He has been going to the market for many years. This year Matthew was selling beautifully crafted wooden spoons.


It is very relaxing and enjoyable to stroll around the market under the elm trees, meet locals and chat to stallholders. Working on a stall was interesting too. One visitor to our stall collects books about bees. He spent some time enthralling us with his vast knowledge of bees.

I also met Tim from Western Creek farm selling fresh goods from his organic farm and Yoshi from Japan who is currently living and working on the farm as a WWOOF A (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms- Australia). They were selling delicious blueberries, vegetables and flowers.



There is free parking on the streets if you get there early, or paid parking later. So next time you are visiting Tasmania on a Sunday, go out and have a great day at the Evandale markets. If you live in Tasmania, you could have your own stall and make some money. For enquiries about the markets, including holding a stall call 03 63919191.

%wnlaunceston
#markets
#community