Salamanca Market

Every Saturday in Hobart, an area usually serving as a road and parking lot is filled with merchants and customers coming out for the Salamanca Market. Salamanca is the name of the area, although why it’s named after a Spanish city I’ve not determined. In any case, the market is really not to be missed should you happen to find yourself in Hobart. According to the official website, over 300 vendors are at the Salamanca Market.

Today is a fine sunny day, perfect for perusing the market. About a third of my fellow passengers on the bus got off as well. I’ve been told that Salamanca Market is not just for tourists, although there is a cheaper market in a more distant suburb on Sundays that attracts a higher percentage of locals. (Every one of my four travel guides mentioned Salamanca Market. Not one mentioned this other market, which I haven’t been to.) As with my previous visits, it was rather crowded. Apparently the best time to beat the crowds is as soon as the stalls are open at 8:30, but I’d rather maneuver through crowds than get up that early on a Saturday.

Salamanca Market is a feast for the senses. There’s always live music of varying quality. When I arrived a band from South America was setting up. They also had CDs for sale with “music from the Andes,” and I thought they were quite good. Most of the musicians I’ve seen are solo acts. It seems to me that some musically inclined Hobart youth take to Salamanca in the hopes of earning some cash. I was particularly impressed with the boy – he looked about 12 – who was playing a keyboard and harmonica at the same time. To do this the harmonica was attached to a stand around his neck. He seemed to favor Elton John music, and did a good job with it. I dropped a couple of coins in his hat.

As you walk past food vendors, delicious aromas tempt you. There are sausages, desserts, crepes, mushroom tempura, coffee, tea, and juice. The fine artisan ice cream drew me in, and I opted for a scoop of spiced apple and blackberry. It was excellent, particularly because the blackberry wasn’t pureed beyond what was needed to work it in ice cream.

Up on a box stood a man dressed in seventeenth-century style clothes, covered in gray paint from head to toe and at work as a living statue. Intrigued, I looked closed and noticed that the lid of his donation box said “Abel Tasman 1603-1659.” Tasman, a Dutch mariner, was the first European to discover Tasmania. (This, incidentally, was almost 130 years before Captain Cook landed in eastern Australia. Tasmanians are therefore less enamored of Captain Cook than people in, say, Sydney; they are much bigger fans of Tasman.) This ‘Abel Tasman’ seemed to be doing the best of anyone as far as tips went. Of course, he made it fun to tip. When I dropped fifty cents in the box, he slowly tipped his hat.

While a few people sell traditional tourist goods, most of the vendors at Salamanca are selling their own products. The best price I’ve seen for the renowned Tasmanian leatherwood honey was at a stall here. It’s good honey, too. Others sell candy (“lollies” is the term here) and two stalls sell baked goods. Produce is also popular. The Hmong are known for their excellent vegetables; this community of refugees from Laos introduced some Asian vegetables to Tasmania in the 1970s. Not feeling very adventurous about vegetables this morning, I just got snow peas, but I’ll have to try their bok choy sometime. Other farmers sell many apple varieties, certified organic produce, and their own jams.

There are some very talented craftspeople who sell their work at Salamanca Market. Woodworking is the most common. Tasmania has some unique and/or rare trees that make lovely wood crafts. (I will write about the conservation vs. forestry issue soon, because that is another topic entirely.) Huon pine, which grows nowhere else, is particularly prized; other featured timbers are myrtle, celery top pine, southern sassafras, blackwood, and leatherwood. None of this comes particularly cheap, but there are beautiful products made out of them. I am especially fond of the cheese boards with wood-handled cheese knives.

One vendor has photo albums between old Tasmanian license plates. Several sell jewelry of various types, from beads to coral to handmade glass. There are metal sculptures, earthy pieces of pottery, 100% Australian sheepskin slippers, wool sweaters, and coin purses made of kangaroo fur. You can buy a boomerang, either a cheap tourist version or one actually made by Aborigines. The authentic boomerangs make a wonderful, classy souvenir, and I found one reasonably priced. (It also has the benefit of providing employment for Australia’s woefully underemployed Aboriginal people.) Tasmania has the largest lavender field in the southern hemisphere, and lavender products are for sale at Salamanca Market, as are handmade soaps and natural beauty products. Just walking along and looking at everything is a wonderful experience. However, I find that the occasional purchase is more fun!