The reverberations of the February and March floods reached far beyond things most people expected – one of those things was the state of Coronation Park at The Channon where every second Sunday of the month one of the biggest and best markets on the Far North Coast is held.
When the flood waters receded, the silt build-up in Coronation Park and the carpark created obstacles. The grounds needed serious drainage work and the local road network became usable for locals only.
Three markets cancelled
The March, April and May markets were cancelled and on June 5 it was announced that the market would move to Lismore, at the pop-up precinct on Dawson Street, for the following two markets.
Last week the news that the market was moving back to The Channon was very happy making and even the downpour during most of Saturday wasn’t enough to dampen excited market-going spirits.
On Sunday it was up and away and Market manager Robyn Kelly was very happy to be back. ’We are in our hometown – the village we’ve been in since 1976. The market site looks beautiful. We’ve had some wonderful work done by our management committee, Lismore City Council and Equip who are the contractors who did the work.’
Flood grant money
Ms Kelly says the committee applied for flood grant money and that enabled them to lay the required gravel. ‘We applied for 50,000 – we’ve spent 18,000 on works on the park, and it’s probably cost us around 15,000 in staff wages and moving to Lismore. We gobbled that money up very quickly.’
Though they are glad to be home, Robyn says it was our honour to go into the city and work with the Lismore Carboot Market. ‘We watched Marny and Gordon reboot – it was really important for us to be part of that – and to get that market trade up and going again.
Back at Coronation Park
‘But, we’re back at Coronation Park – it’s such a picturesque setting.
‘We have about 120 stalls this weekend, that’s about half of what we had pre-COVID.’
The stall holder and marketgoers were all happy to be back at The Channon. Now it’s just a matter of building things up to the way they were in 2019.
Making the market viable
Ms Kelly says it’s been a challenge to work out how to make the market viable, and keep it viable. ‘We’re really wanting to encourage people to be creative, step out, come down have a little market stall. You might be surprised it might be your new career and change your life completely!’
By supporting the market you are also supporting local community groups and schools. The August market was a fundraiser for The Channon Public School P&C and next month will be the Dunoon Public School P&C.
‘Our stall site fees are really reasonable for the day, it’s a great place for children to come and sell products too. To register, you just jump on the website, or give us a call. We can book you in. It’s a beautiful environment to just to come and spend the day out.’
For information on The Channon market, visit: thechannonmarket.org.au.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
