Salamanca Market, Hobart, Tasmania
Every Saturday morning since 1972, the sandstone warehouse precinct of Salamanca Place has transformed into one of Australia's finest outdoor markets — roughly 300 stalls selling everything from hand-thrown pottery and merino knitwear to freshly shucked Bruny Island oysters and Tasmanian whisky. It is the social heartbeat of Hobart and the single best place to understand what makes Tasmania distin
What to Buy and Eat
Head straight for the food stalls clustered near the Salamanca Arts Centre end: Bruny Island Cheese Co. sells its famous C2 washed-rind rounds here, and the Tasmanian Honey Company's leatherwood variety — harvested from old-growth rainforest — is unlike any honey you have tasted before.
The market's craft stalls have a genuinely high bar for quality. Look for handmade huon pine bowls (the timber is endemic to Tasmania and carries a faint, sweet scent), hand-dyed silk scarves from local studio Weavers Cottage, and small-batch botanical prints from the many artist-printmakers who set up near the Salamanca Square fountain.
The Neighbourhood Around It
Salamanca Place's Georgian sandstone warehouses — built by convict labour in the 1830s — now house galleries, restaurants and the excellent Salamanca Arts Centre, whose courtyard cafes spill out and blend seamlessly with the market crowd. After the market winds down around 3 pm, walk up the wooden zigzag stairs of Kelly's Steps to Battery Point, Hobart's best-preserved colonial village, for a quieter afternoon explore.
MONA — the Museum of Old and New Art — is a 25-minute ferry ride up the Derwent River from the Brooke Street Pier adjacent to Salamanca. Combining a Saturday market morning with a MONA afternoon is the perfect Hobart day.
Salamanca Market, Hobart, Tasmania on video
More of Australia
Discover where to stay, what to do and the best deals for your trip.
Explore Australia →
