By JESSE GRAHAM
A COMMUNITY market is being set up to re-energise and reinvigorate Cockatoo’s tourist appeal, with two residents opening the event early next month.
The first Cockatoo Country Market will be held on Saturday 7 March in the car park outside the Cockatoo Community Hall.
Organisers, Tanya Burmeister and Owen Deppeler, told the Mail that the market was set up to address a lack of tourist traffic through the town on weekends, compared to others towns in the hills.
“We’ve noticed in this particular area that small businesses are struggling to survive,” she said.
“This area is not really tourist-driven, so we’re hoping to boost that.”
Enter the country market – the idea behind the event is to offer local businesses, artists and people from around the Dandenongs to sell their wares and create an attraction for visitors on weekends.
Ms Burmeister said she wanted the event to also strengthen ties in the community and that all profits from the market as it grew would be donated to not-for-profit groups in the area.
“We’re hoping that, by doing this community market, it brings people out to socialise and strengthens the bonds of the community,” she said.
She said the town had not had a community market in the seven years that she had lived in the area, and that she hoped businesses and residents in the community – both in Cockatoo and beyond – would come on board with the idea.
“When we moved here, we loved this place – we love living here and love bringing out children up here,” Ms Burmeister said.
“We want this place to have a bigger footprint.”
The Cockatoo Country Market will be held on 7 March and on the first Saturday of each month from then on at the Cockatoo Community Hall.
Stall costs start at $30 per market.
For more information, or to book a stall, contact either Tanya Burmeister or Owen Deppeler at cockatoocountrymarket@outlook.com or call 5968 9678 or 0418 508 068.
