Enjoy the sights, sounds, flavours, action and colour of Australia's best outdoor market - proudly operated by Hobart City Council -every Saturday from 8.30am to 3.00pm at Hobart's Salamanca Place.
Set between graceful plane trees and the mellow sandstone facades of historic warehouses, Hobart's famous market at Salamanca Place attracts thousands of locals and visitors, every Saturday of the year.
They come for the food and music, fresh fruit, crisp organic vegetables, hot baked spuds, the warm aroma of a coffee and croissant, busker's singing the blues, stroking a harp or strumming a lively folk song.
They come for breakfast, scrambled eggs and orange juice at a Salamanca bistro, then a stroll along the hundreds of stalls, meeting friendly people who make or grow what they sell.
Salamanca Market highlights fine Tasmanian art & craft including hand-worked glass, innovative design in Tasmanian timbers, stylish clothing, and bold ceramics.
Download the Salamanca Market Brochure.
Salamanca Market is a five-minute walk from the city centre. Parking is available in Montpelier Retreat and in city car parks.
Salamanca Market is close to historic St David's Park on the fringe of Hobart's central business district, where city shops are open all day Saturday. From the market, its a short climb up Kelly's Steps to reach the Georgian cottages and the village atmosphere of Battery Point.
Hobart's picturesque waterfront is also nearby across Salamanca lawns to the docks, where hard-working fishing boats are berthed close to cruising yachts and a square-rigger or two.
For some stallholders, being at Salamanca Market on Saturdays has become a rewarding way of life. If you would like to be part of the Salamanca Market experience view the information below.
The Council welcomes buskers to the Market. If you would like to busk, please view the Salamanca Market Busking Conditions for more information.
The Council is undertaking two significant initiatives associated with Salamanca Market.
Both these initiatives have arisen out of the Enterprise Marketing and Research Services (EMRS) study undertaken for the Council, and both seek to address the fundamental business sustainability issues raised by that report.
It is the Council’s objective that the Market should emerge from these initiatives, stronger and more capable of facing the challenges ahead, with a governance and business management model that is focussed solely and without distraction on the ongoing success and continued development of this icon Tasmanian event.
There have been questions for some time, some of these raised by stallholders, as to what would be the best structure to support the operation of Salamanca Market.
Indeed, the EMRS report posed the question as to whether a Council, that has many claims on its resources and its activities, was best equipped to operate a business such as Salamanca Market, when these requirements and limitations may affect its ability to give the Market the priority consideration it required.
After considering these issues carefully, the Council, at its meeting of Monday
24 August 2009, resolved to endorse the establishment of a corporatised entity (such as a wholly owned subsidiary) with the Council being the sole shareholder, to become responsible for the management and operation of Salamanca Market.
More work is being undertaken on the detail of the governance structure and composition, including consideration of associated legal requirements, the relationship with the Hobart City Council, and the role and composition of the board and/or oversighting entity.
The Council will keep all stakeholders informed of this work as it progresses.
In making this decision, the Council sees that a new, more independent and single business focussed governance model is now required to secure the long term health, sustainability and growth of Salamanca Market.
We must stress that this would not in any way be a ‘privatised’ model, but rather would see the Council maintaining its ‘ownership’ of the Market albeit at ‘arms length’. This model would focus only on the operation of Market, with its financial operations being separate to that of the Council.
Importantly such a model recognises the significance of the Market as a major Tasmanian visitor attraction, and its importance to the Council and the City of Hobart as a high value ‘brand’ asset.
The Council at its meeting of 27 April 2009, resolved to undertake a holistic review of the current Salamanca Market Licence Agreement.
This review will include evaluation of the current methodology for the annual indexation of fees for Salamanca Market, and the management of product lines at the Market, in acknowledgement of particular stallholder concerns in these areas.
This review of the Licence Agreement will also include a review of the Stallholders’ Guide, and, as previously advised, the establishment of an agreement for casual traders.
The Council is committed to providing the greatest opportunity for all stallholders to be part of the consultation process that will feed into the development of the new Licence Agreement.
Through this consultation process we are keen to know what stallholders would like to see in any new Licence Agreement, and how this might be achieved in terms of changed Licence conditions and provisions.
As part of the first stage of its development, we have identified two opportunities through which stallholders can submit ideas right now.
The first opportunity is for interested parties to make written submissions in relation to the Licence review directly to the Council.
These will need to be received by no later than 5pm, Tuesday 1 December 2009.
To make a submission you can send your comments via:
The second opportunity is for stallholders to submit their issues and ideas to the Salamanca Market Stallholders’ Association Inc., so these can be discussed in a workshop setting with the Association and Council to be scheduled later this year.
While we have suggested to the Association that it may want to canvas the views of stallholders in regard to the Licence review process prior to this workshop, we also encourage stallholders to contact the Association directly.
This can be done by contacting the Association’s Secretary, Ms Helen Timms on email: coldcomf@bigpond.net.au.
Hobart City Council gratefully acknowledges the support of WIN Television.
