Best Markets In Adelaide | Australian Traveller

There’s homemade produce, vintage finds, and unique décor aplenty at these local markets.

There’s no shortage of things to do in Adelaide and you’re spoilt for choice when it comes to interesting places to shop. The South Australian capital offers a vibrant range of markets for visitors and locals alike to meander around picking out fresh produce and collecting unique finds.

From handcrafted artisan gifts to flea-market finds, we’ve curated some of Adelaide’s best markets to enjoy.

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Adelaide Central Market

The Adelaide Central Market is the beating heart of South Australia’s food scene with over seventy fresh produce traders and a smorgasbord of street food.

The 140-year-old Adelaide icon shows no signs of slowing down soon with expansion slated for 2026. The sights and smells of local and global cuisine collide in this bustling community hub so be sure to come by to taste for yourself.

cheese on display at Adelaide Central Market — You’ll find an array of cheese to choose from at Adelaide Central Market. (Image: Tourism Australia)

Address: 44/60 Gouger St, Adelaide

Opening hours: Tuesday 7am – 5:30pm, Wednesday: 9am – 5.30pm (selected traders only), Thursday: 9am – 5pm, Friday: 7am – 9pm, Saturday: 7am – 3pm

Adelaide Farmers Market

Meet the farmers that fuel South Australia at the weekly Sunday farmers market in Wayville . Source culinary inspiration for the week ahead whilst supporting local seasonal and sustainable produce.

Over 100 fresh produce traders travel to bring Kangaroo Island scallops, Barossa dairy and Riverland citrus fruits from their farm to your plate. With musicians and a kids’ corner, this is a carefree way to ease into your Sunday.

a couple buying flowers at Adelaide Farmers Market — Pick up a bouquet of fresh flowers to enliven your home. (Image: South Australian Tourism Commission)

Address: Rose Terrace, Wayville

Opening hours: Sunday 8:30am – 12:30pm

Ebenezer Night Markets

The east end of Rundle Street transforms on balmy summer evenings for the Ebenezer Night Markets .

Laneways come alive with live music late into the night and a heady mix of artisan craft stalls and food stalls, with over forty traders jostling for space alongside pop-up gin bars and the smells of sizzling street food.

the vibrant Ebenezer Night Markets — Ebenezer Night Markets come alive with festoon lighting and live music. (Image: South Australian Tourism Commission)

Address: 31 Ebenezer Pl, Adelaide

Opening hours: Selected dates December – March 5:30pm – 10pm

Plant 4 Bowden

This vibrant twice-weekly night market set in the industrial setting of former factory Plant 4 is just outside the Adelaide CBD in Bowden. Vintage clothing and beauty stalls share space with local musicians, offering an upbeat way to spend an evening with locals. Food highlights include Shirni Parwana, an Afghan-inspired Adelaide icon, offering sweet treats to tempt you.

Address: 5 Third St, Bowden

Opening hours: Wednesday and Friday 5 – 9pm

WEST

Henley Square Markets

Once a month, Henley Beach is a-buzz with traders for the Henley Square Markets settling in for the best Sunday sea views in town while offering an eclectic range of clothing, craft and jewellery stalls.

Fiction Distilling serves literature-inspired gin that hides in your bookcase, or treat yourself to a fresh cannoli while you enjoy the seaside air.

people tagging along their dogs at Henley Square Markets — You can bring your dogs along with you to Henley Square Markets.

Henley Square hosts a range of dining options, stay long enough and you can watch a spectacular Southern Ocean sunset.

crowded beachfront shopping stalls at Henley Square Markets — This bustling market draws lively crowds.

Address: Henley Beach, South Australia

Opening hours: Sunday 8am – 4pm

People’s Market Port Adelaide

The People’s Market is a community-led market set in the historic maritime suburb of Port Adelaide. Set in an 1889 Flour Mill saved from demolition by the community, this market includes fresh produce and arts and crafts with the chance to spot a dolphin in the Port River while you sip your coffee.

Address: 49 St Vincent St, Port Adelaide

Opening hours:

Friday to Sunday: 10am – 4pm

SOUTH

The Original Open Market

A 45-minute drive south of Adelaide CBD you’ll come to the seaside suburb of Christies Beach which is fringed by some of the best beaches in Adelaide. The unpretentious The Original Open Market is one of Adelaide’s oldest with a selection of stalls selling plants, bric-à-brac, and baked goods. Perfect for those trash-to-treasure finds.

Address: 121 Beach Rd, Christies Beach

Opening hours: 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month 8am – 1pm

EAST

Bowerbird

Only on twice a year but worth timing a visit to coincide, Bowerbird is Adelaide’s premier design market. Meet contemporary designers and browse high-end handcrafted jewellery, clothes and homewares from across Australia.

The November market is the ideal inspiration for those hard-to-get Christmas presents; the biggest challenge will be not maxing out the credit card on bougie beautiful things.

people browsing through clothes on display at Bowerbird — Head to Bowerbird for a wardrobe makeover.

Address: Adelaide Showground, Goodwood Rd, Wayville

Opening hours: Twice annually usually May and November.

Magill Sunrise Market

The Campbelltown Memorial Oval springs to life every second Sunday with the Magill Sunrise Market . From plants to second-hand book stalls, all proceeds go to charity so you’re likely to leave with a warm and fuzzy glow.

If you have a favourite item that is looking worse for wear, bring it along and The Repair Café can teach you how to fix it.

the stalls at Magill Sunrise Market, Adelaide — Visit Magill Sunrise Market every second Sunday.

Address: Fisher St, Magill

Opening hours: Every second Sunday 9am – 2pm

The Wilunga Farmers Market

Looking further afield The Willunga Farmers Market is a popular Saturday morning produce market 45 minutes drive from Adelaide CBD providing the perfect excuse to escape the city and enjoy some wineries in Mclaren Vale.

crowds shopping at Wilunga Farmers Market — Shop your way around Wilunga Farmers Market. (Image: Richard Bennett)

Take a leisurely stroll through the stalls and sample delicious locally-grown produce.

grapes on display at Wilunga Farmers Market — Stock up on fresh produce such as grapes at Wilunga Farmers Market. (Image: Myriah Smith)

Address: High School, Main Rd, Willunga

Opening hours: Sunday 8am -1pm

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Video credit: Visit Victoria/Tourism Australia

The Grampians just might be the ultimate antidote for the metropolis, writes one returning Aussie ready to disconnect from the modern world and reconnect to the Great outdoors.

There are no kangaroos back in Chicago: they’re all here in the Grampians/Gariwerd . In the heart of the Grampians National Park’s main gateway town, Halls Gap, pods of eastern greys are eating grass beside my parked rental car beneath the stars. Next morning, when I see the backyard of my rented villa on the edge of town for the first time, there are kangaroos feeding beside a slow-moving creek, lined with river red gums.

Five hundred metres up the road, 50 or so of them are eating by the side of the road in a paddock. I pull over to watch and spot three emus. Yellow-tailed black cockatoos fly overhead towards the tall green mountains just beyond town.

‘Kee-ow, keee-oww’… their calls fuse with the maniacal cackle of a kookaburra (or 10). Gawd, how I’ve missed the sound of them. Far above, a wedge-tailed eagle watches, and there you go: the ‘great birds of Australia’ trifecta, all half a kay from the town limits.

Exchanging city chaos for country calm

kangaroos near Halls Gap, Grampians National Park — The park is renowned for its significant diversity of native fauna species. (Image: Visit Victoria/Robert Blackburn)

I’ve come to the Grampians to disconnect, but the bush offers a connection of its own. This isn’t just any bush, mind you. The Grampians National Park is iconic for many reasons, mostly for its striking sandstone mountains – five ridges run north to south, with abrupt, orange slopes which tumble right into Halls Gap – and for the fact there’s 20,000 years of traditional rock art. Across these mountains there are more than 200 recorded sites to see, created by the Djab Wurrung, Jardwadjali and Gunditjmara peoples. It’s just like our outback… but three hours from Melbourne.

I’ve come here for a chance at renewal after the chaos of my life in America’s third-largest city, Chicago, where I live for now, at the whim of a relative’s cancer journey. Flying into Melbourne’s airport, it only takes an hour’s drive to feel far away from any concept of suburbia. When I arrive in Halls Gap two hours later, the restaurant I’m eating at clears out entirely by 7:45pm; Chicago already feels a lifetime ago.

The trails and treasures of the Grampians

sunrise at Grampians National Park /Gariwerd — Grampians National Park /Gariwerd covers almost 2000 square kilometres. (Image: Ben Savage)

Though the national park covers almost 2000 square kilometres, its best-known landmarks are remarkably easy to access. From my carpark here, among the cockatoos and kangaroos on the fringe of Halls Gap, it only takes 60 seconds’ driving time before I’m winding my way up a steep road through rainforest, deep into the mountains.

Then it’s five minutes more to a carpark that serves as a trailhead for a hike to one of the park’s best vantage points, The Pinnacles . I walk for an hour or so, reacquainting myself with the smells and the sounds of the Aussie bush, before I reach it: a sheer cliff’s edge lookout 500 metres up above Halls Gap.

walking through a cave, Hollow Mountain — Overlooking the vast Grampians landscape from Hollow Mountain. (Image: Robert Blackburn)

There are hikes and there are lookouts and waterfalls all across this part of the park near town. Some are a short stroll from a carpark; others involve long, arduous hikes through forest. The longest is the Grampians Peaks Trail , Victoria’s newest and longest iconic walk, which runs 160 kilometres – the entire length of Grampians National Park.

Local activities operator Absolute Outdoors shows me glimpses of the trail. The company’s owner, Adrian Manikas, says it’s the best walk he’s done in Australia. He says he’s worked in national parks across the world, but this was the one he wanted to bring his children up in.

“There’s something about the Grampians,” he says, as he leads me up a path to where there’s wooden platforms for tents, beside a hut looking straight out across western Victoria from a kilometre up in the sky (these are part of the guided hiking options for the trail). “There are things out here that you won’t see anywhere else in Australia.” Last summer, 80 per cent of the park was damaged by bushfire, but Manikas shows me its regrowth, and tells me of the manic effort put in by volunteers from town – with firefighters from all over Australia – to help save Halls Gap.

wildflowers in Grampians National Park — Spot wildflowers. (Image: Visit Victoria)

We drive back down to Halls Gap at dusk to abseil down a mountain under the stars, a few minutes’ walk off the main road into town. We have headlamps, but a full moon is enough to light my way down. It takes blind faith to walk backwards down a mountain into a black void, though the upside is I can’t see the extent of my descent.

Grampians National Park at sunset. (Image: Wine Australian)

The stargazing is ruined by the moon, of course, but you should see how its glow lights up the orange of the sandstone, like in a theme park. When I’m done, I stand on a rocky plateau drinking hot chocolate and listening to the Aussie animals who prefer nighttime. I can see the streets of Halls Gap off in the distance on this Friday night. The restaurants may stay open until 8pm tonight.

What else is on offer in The Grampians?

a boat travelling along the Wimmera River inDimboola — Travelling along the Wimmera River in Dimboola. (Image: Chris McConville)

You’ll find all sorts of adventures out here – from rock climbing to canoeing to hiking – but there’s more to the Grampians than a couple of thousand square kilometres of trees and mountains. Halls Gap may be known to most people, but what of Pomonal, and Dimboola, and Horsham? Here in the shadow of those big sandstone mountains there are towns and communities most of us don’t know to visit.

And who knew that the Grampians is home to Victoria’s most underrated wine region ? My disconnection this morning comes not in a forest, but in the tasting rooms and winery restaurants of the district. Like Pomonal Estate, barely 10 minutes’ drive east of Halls Gap, where UK-born chef Dean Sibthorp prepares a locally caught barramundi with lentil, pumpkin and finger lime in a restaurant beside the vines at the base of the Grampians. Husband-and-wife team Pep and Adam Atchison tell me stories as they pour their prize wines (shiraz is the hero in these parts).

dining at Pomonal Estate — Dine in a restaurant beside vines at Pomonal Estate. (Image: Tourism Australia)

Three minutes’ drive back down the road, long-time mates Hadyn Black and Darcy Naunton run an eclectic cellar door out of a corrugated iron shed, near downtown Pomonal. The Christmas before last, half the houses in Pomonal burnt down in a bushfire, but these locals are a resilient lot.

The fires also didn’t stop the construction of the first art centre in Australia dedicated to environmental art in a nature-based precinct a little further down the road (that’s Wama – the National Centre for Environmental Arts), which opened in July. And some of the world’s oldest and rarest grape vines have survived 160 years at Best’s Wines, outside the heritage town of Great Western. There’s plantings here from the year 1868, and there’s wines stored in century-old barrels within 150-year-old tunnels beneath the tasting room. On the other side of town, Seppelt Wines’ roots go back to 1865. They’re both only a 30-minute drive from Halls Gap.

Salingers of Great Western — Great Western is a charming heritage town. (Image: Griffin Simm)

There’s more to explore yet; I drive through tiny historic towns that barely make the map. Still part of the Grampians, they’re as pretty as the mountains behind them: full of late 19th-century/early 20th-century post offices, government offices and bank buildings, converted now to all manner of bric-a-brac stores and cafes.

The Imaginarium is one, in quirky Dimboola, where I sleep in the manager’s residence of an old National Australia Bank after a gourmet dinner at the local golf club, run by noted chef and teacher, Cat Clarke – a pioneer of modern Indigenous Australian cooking. Just south, I spend an entire afternoon at a winery, Norton Estate Wines, set on rolling calico-coloured hills that make me think of Tuscany, chit-chatting with owners Chris and Sam Spence.

Being here takes me back two decades, when I lived here for a time. It had all seemed as foreign as if I’d driven to another planet back then (from Sydney/Warrane), but there seemed something inherently and immediately good about this place, like I’d lived here before.

And it’s the Australian small-town familiarity of the Grampians that offers me connection back to my own country. Even in the better-known Halls Gap, Liz from Kerrie’s Creations knows I like my lattes with soy milk and one sugar. And while I never do get the name of the lady at the local Ampol station, I sure know a lot about her life.

Kookaburras on a tree — Kookaburras are one of some 230 bird species. (Image: Darren Donlen)

You can be a local here in a day; how good is that? In Chicago, I don’t even know who my neighbour is. Though each day at dusk – when the kangaroos gather outside my villa, and the kookaburras and the black cockatoos shout out loud before settling in to sleep – I prefer the quieter connection I get out there in the bush, beneath these orange mountains.

A traveller’s checklist

Staying there

Sleep beside the wildlife on the edge of Halls Gap at Serenity .

Playing there

abseiling down Hollow Mountain — Hollow Mountain is a popular abseiling site.

Go abseiling under the stars or join a guided hike with Absolute Outdoors . Visit Wama , Australia’s first environmental art centre. Check out Dimboola’s eccentric Imaginarium .

Eating there

steak, naan bread and beer at Paper Scissors Rock in Halls Gap — Paper Scissors Rock in Halls Gap serves a great steak on naan bread.

Eat world-class cuisine at Pomonal Estate . Dine and stay at much-revered icon Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld. The ‘steak on naan’ at Halls Gap brewhouse Paper Scissors Rock , can’t be beat.

Dunkeld Arboretum in Grampians National Park — The serene Dunkeld Arboretum.

For Halls Gap’s best breakfasts head to Livefast Cafe . Sip local wines at Great Western’s historic wineries, Best’s Wines , Seppelt Wines and Norton Estate Wines .

two glasses of beer at Paper Scissors Rock in Halls Gap — Sink a cold one at Paper Scissors Rock.

A must-read guide to the best markets in Adelaide

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