Byron Farmers Market at Butler St Reserve.
After a couple of weeks back at Butler Street Reserve, the team at Byron Farmers Market has made a few changes as the market settles back into its old digs – including introducing a parcel pick-up system!
Byron Farmers Market manager, Tom Carey, said it was great for the market to be back on home turf and in town, however there had been a couple of teething issues which they are overcoming.
‘The first week back was following the wettest November on record and it rained almost continually for a week after that, so we were dealing with pretty wet grounds,’ he said. ‘However, that’s all dried up now, which is great.
‘The other issue is that part of our licencing agreement is that there is to be no vehicle movement outside of the market footprint as it has the potential to disrupt ground contamination. This means we had to move the free off-street parking area to the back of the Reserve, near the toilet block – about 50m further away from where it used to be.’
So to ease the load for customers carrying large amounts of produce, Byron Farmers Market has introduced a parcel pick-up service. You can now drop off your market shopping at the manager’s tent at the southern end of the market near Somerset St where you will be issued with a pick-up number. Then you simply drive into the allocated ‘Parcel Pick-Up’ area in the parking spots near the manger’s tent and pull up and load your produce.
Mr Carey pointed out that there is also nearby parking available at the Lawson St South car park, which is less than 100m across the road from the market grounds via the railway corridor walkway.
‘It’s all a work in progress to make everyone’s life easier,’ he said. ‘We knew we would need to make some adjustments, but our stallholders were always committed to coming back to Butler Street and we still believe being back close to town and on grass under the trees is the right place for the market.’
Byron Farmers Market is held every Thursday 7–11am at Butler St Reserve.
