Peter Hackworth’s Riverside at the Gardens Market comes alive every Sunday market. Bring your puppers to this Brisbane Sunday Market, because this is a Brisbane dog friendly market too.
Bring your furry friends to this Brisbane dog-friendly market.
Riverside Brisbane Sunday Market
Brisbane’s trailblazer of open-air markets, Peter Hackworth, has a market every Sunday from 8 am to 3 pm bringing energy, colour, music, arts and people to the Brisbane Botanic Gardens in the CBD.
Visitors to the Riverside market will enjoy a wide array of food designed to eat there or prepare at home along with a farmer’s market, cooking demonstrations, handmade art and crafts, fashion and gifts. Also expect a strong line-up of buskers and live entertainment on the broad pathway connecting the two markets through the lush, shady botanic gardens to entertain the crowds. It’s a day out for everybody, free to enter, and canine companions are welcome at this Brisbane dog-friendly market.
Brisbane’s trailblazer of open-air markets, Peter Hackworth.
Riverside QUT Infusion Market has authentic local wares
Where else but a Peter Hackworth market would you find so many exciting producers and artists with authentic goods from their local region?
One of the first stallholders at Riverside at the Markets QUT Infusion Market will be artist Niels van Amsterdam. Niels’ work stretches over 30 years and includes working with leather, recycled rubber and handmade papers, influenced by work and travel in China and South-East Asia.
“My current interest in sculpture is focussed on working in miniature with a variety of mediums, including Japanese origami and Arabic designs to create small scale wearable pieces that explore patterns and sequences,” says Niels.
Which stallholders will you find at this Brisbane Sunday market?
There’s a wide range of stallholders. Linda Norton describes herself as a fibre artist, “I play with fibre in lots of ways, but spinning is my happy place,” she says. “I make quirky one-of-a-kind things with reclaimed felt or fabric. Colour and texture always feature in my creations. I’ve discovered the possibilities of working with polymer clay to make jewellery – most often with a biscuit theme, think Iced VoVo’s!”
Katie Warrener has spent most of her life by the beach and in the surf. After seeing so many beaches polluted with plastic and other garbage, she was inspired to produce quick drying, ‘sand-free’ beach towels. Each one of her Amity Blue label is made from around 20 recycled plastic bottles.
Ian Johno creates a truly remarkable, colourful array of artworks on canvas and surfboards, which inspire the unique dress designs he’ll be featuring at the market. Hand made in Brisbane, every dress comes with the story of its creation through dreams, meditation and walking the land. The dresses are individually printed, considering each size, rather than printed on an endless roll of fabric, so the complete artwork can form the shape of the body.
Jordie McLeish is passionate about preserving and showcasing the past in innovative mediums. Antique cutlery and coins are features of his current collection. All pieces are meticulously hand-worked, cut and polished to an exceptional standard.
Dumplings with shallot pancakes at Riverside QUT Infusion Market
Three generations of Brisbane marketeers
Peter Hackworth became involved in restaurants and markets for all the right reasons. She loves people and bringing people together through good food and good times in a never-ending celebration of life. Her daughter Michaele grew up around mum’s markets and is now the manager of both Riverside Markets. Michaele’s son Kai will be joining his mum and grandmother in running the operation.
“I have been in market management for 15 years, but I still like to have my own stall. Markets are grassroots and a great place to launch a business. Many stallholders have started a successful enterprise and gone on to have wonderful shops and great success selling online,” says Michaele.
“I started doing markets because I had little children and was going crazy,” said Michaele. “So I could have some sort of contact with adults at home, I started making lampshades out of old embroidered doilies.”
“Back in the seventies, I was living in northern New South Wales, but when I came back to Brisbane, I realised that there were no artisan markets in Brisbane. So, mum and I started contacting amazing artisans from far and wide and had a market in the car park of her restaurant Cats Tango in Indooroopilly, which was a haunt for students and academics.”
Discover native flavour seasonings at QUT Riverside Infusion Market.
Peter Hackworth markets
The entrepreneurial spirit runs deeps in the Hackworth family. Peter ran her first cafe in Brisbane in 1957 when she was only 21 years old. By the heady days of Brisbane Expo ’88, a period that saw the introduction of sidewalk dining to Brisbane, Peter was the President of the Queensland Restaurant and Caterers Association. She was the lead campaigner for the continuation of outdoor dining in Queensland.
The Hackworth family’s contribution to the open-air lifestyle of Queenslanders has been remarkable. Their Kelvin Grove Village Markets have been running on Saturdays for 15 years, bringing incredible life and colour to what was a fairly quiet, especially on weekends, inner-city development.
Riverside at the Gardens Market has been going for 30 years. Five years ago, it moved from the walkway along the Brisbane River to a new, shadier location among the historic City Botanic Gardens.
Eat Street Northshore Markets, which was launched by Peter and friends in 2013, changed Brisbane’s perception of what markets could be.
“I always wanted to recreate in Brisbane the hustle and bustle of the fabulous food markets of Asia, with all that fun and energy, the exotic flavours, wafts of wonderful aromas and noise,” says Peter.
What you need to know about this Brisbane Sunday market
Just the facts about Riverside at the Gardens Market
- Open Sundays, from 8 am to 3 pm.
- See the location on Google Maps
- There is no entry fee.
- Dogs – it’s a yes to canine friends. This is a Brisbane dog friendly market.
- Parking – There are lots of metered parking spots on Edward Street, Alice Street and Mary
- Or you can park all day for $10 at the Wilson Parking carpark at 42 Albert St.
- Ferry – Eagle Street Pier is only a 12-minute walk away, or QUT Gardens Point stop is a 10-minute walk.
- Disability access – There are three disabled parking spots on the junction of Edward Street and Alice Street and two parking spots on Margaret Street. Disability access to the City Botanic Gardens and QUT are available at each entrance. The toilets are disabled access.
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