Salamanca Market
Encyclopedia
Salamanca Market is a street market in Salamanca Place, Hobart
, Tasmania
. It is a major tourist attraction in Tasmania, and is held on Saturdays between 8.30am and 3.00pm.
through their then President Mrs Grace Montgomery. Alderman Clemente promoted the concept to the Hobart City Council and the Council's Resolution to trial a market was passed on 28 June 1971. The initial market, consisting of about 12 stalls, was located at the Silos end of Salamanca Place and held 7 months later on 22 January 1972.
Salamanca Market operated just in the summer for the first few years of its life. It started 4 weeks before Christmas
and ran until Easter
. It proved to be so popular and successful that the Tasmanian Puppet
Theatre
, in 1975, established a Winter
Market
. In 1977 they were joined and aided in their market's operation by the Salamanca Arts Centre
. The Winter Market was managed by Ingvar Nilsson, David Westlake and Thad Sasser. Ingvar and David are still stallholders.
Salamanca Market had grown quite considerably by 1977, with many stallholders attending regularly and so an informal Stallholders' Association, chaired by Philip Broughton, was established. He negotiated the concept of 'Permanent Stallholders' with the Council. This resulted in regular stallholders being identified, assigned fixed sites and paying rent in advance.
Up until that time all stallholders were casuals
who had to queue up very early every Saturday morning in order to be able to rent a market site. Many spent the night sleeping nearby in their cars to be sure to get an opportunity to sell their goods. This casual method of site allocation, with the continuing growth in the size of the market, had become very unwieldy and impractical for both stallholders and the Council's then market manager Tony Gibson to administer, hence the advent of Permanent Stallholders.
Very shortly after this Council accepted that Permanent Stallholders could hand over their market business, with the attached market site, to a person of their choice.
Retreat. It was still possible to get a casual site simply by turning up at about 10am finding an empty space and erecting a table. The responsible Council
officer then walked round and collected the rent.
Early in 1984 a season's Winter Market centre aisle stall rent cost $254 and a season's Summer Market side stall rent $448. Within a very few years people were once more sleeping in their cars overnight, this time outside the Town Hall, in order to pay for the few remaining Permanent Sites as they were put up for rent.
In January 1987 Dr Finney of CACF announced that the Arts Centre
had debts of $300K and was in danger of financial collapse. He said the Centre needed to run both Summer and Winter Markets in order to trade out of trouble.
At about the same time the HCC's public relations officer announced that the Business
Advisory Group might recommend that the Market be transferred to a Sunday if all day shopping was introduced in the City on a Saturday.
A petition
opposing the Market moving to a Sunday and signed by 202 stallholders was presented to Council. Lord Mayor
Doone Kennedy subsequently stated in the press that Council had no intention of making such a change.
The Salamanca Stallholders Association was officially established on 19/2/87.
Later that year the Council took over the running of the Winter Market from the Arts Centre. In return the Council paid off a large part of the Centre's debt and undertook to pay them a grant
of $50K every year from Salamanca Market rental income
. The Council still give the Arts Centre an annual Grant from this source.
Over the next year or so the Summer Market's opening hours were changed from 9am-1pm to 9am-2pm and the Winter Market rents were raised to the same level as those charged for the Summer Market. Up until then it had been recognised by the Arts Centre that Winter Market rents should be lower than Summer Market rents because stallholders' sales were much lower during the winter.
In 1988/9 Ingvar Nilsson became President of the Stallholders Association.
During 1993 the operating hours of the Market were increased from 9 am-2pm to 9am-3pm.
In 1995, more stalls were created in the car park area by the side of the Market near Montpellier Retreat and the sites were allocated to members of the Hmong
Community
.
After lobbying by Casual
Stallholders, in 1996, many of the Casual sites created in 1992 between Montpellier Retreat and Gladstone St were assigned to qualified individuals as Permanent sites.
Subsequent to this action a further Market extension occurred, this time from Gladstone St to Davey
St, in order to accommodate Casuals into the future.
In 1998/9 a detailed feasibility study on the issue of a Sunday Market in Salamanca Place was undertaken and 3 Sunday Markets were trialed. They were not very successful and ongoing Sunday Markets in Salamanca Place were opposed by both the Stallholders Association and the Sullivans Cove Merchant's Association.
In September 2009 the Council General Manager announced in the Mercury that Council had passed a proposal to change Salamanca Market from a Community Market to a Council owned independent profit making company. Concern about the lack of consultation
on this proposal and how its implementation might effect their Market Businesses was expressed by stallholders.
About 12 Market Businesses with their attached Licences are sold every year. Some have paid up to $100K for their occupancy rights, but the average Market Business sale price is nearer $50K.
Salamanca Market has grown from 12 stalls in 1972 to 300 in 2010, becoming Tasmania's most visited tourist venue attracting up to 25,000 visitors every Saturday.
Hobart
Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
, Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
. It is a major tourist attraction in Tasmania, and is held on Saturdays between 8.30am and 3.00pm.
1970s
The original idea of running a Community Market in Hobart's Salamanca Place was suggested to Alderman Clemente in 1971 by the National Council of Women TasmaniaTasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
through their then President Mrs Grace Montgomery. Alderman Clemente promoted the concept to the Hobart City Council and the Council's Resolution to trial a market was passed on 28 June 1971. The initial market, consisting of about 12 stalls, was located at the Silos end of Salamanca Place and held 7 months later on 22 January 1972.
Salamanca Market operated just in the summer for the first few years of its life. It started 4 weeks before Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
and ran until Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
. It proved to be so popular and successful that the Tasmanian Puppet
Puppet
A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by an entertainer, who is called a puppeteer. It is used in puppetry, a play or a presentation that is a very ancient form of theatre....
Theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, in 1975, established a Winter
Winter
Winter is the coldest season of the year in temperate climates, between autumn and spring. At the winter solstice, the days are shortest and the nights are longest, with days lengthening as the season progresses after the solstice.-Meteorology:...
Market
Market
A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...
. In 1977 they were joined and aided in their market's operation by the Salamanca Arts Centre
Salamanca Arts Centre
The Salamanca Arts Centre , established in 1976, is a major arts hub in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is a combination of theatres, galleries and arts administration located behind the historic facade of Georgian warehouses in Salamanca Place. The buildings are owned by the Government of Tasmania...
. The Winter Market was managed by Ingvar Nilsson, David Westlake and Thad Sasser. Ingvar and David are still stallholders.
Salamanca Market had grown quite considerably by 1977, with many stallholders attending regularly and so an informal Stallholders' Association, chaired by Philip Broughton, was established. He negotiated the concept of 'Permanent Stallholders' with the Council. This resulted in regular stallholders being identified, assigned fixed sites and paying rent in advance.
Up until that time all stallholders were casuals
Casuals
The casual subculture is a subsection of association football culture that is typified by football hooliganism and the wearing of expensive European designer clothing. The subculture originated in the United Kingdom in the early 1980s when many hooligans started wearing designer labels and...
who had to queue up very early every Saturday morning in order to be able to rent a market site. Many spent the night sleeping nearby in their cars to be sure to get an opportunity to sell their goods. This casual method of site allocation, with the continuing growth in the size of the market, had become very unwieldy and impractical for both stallholders and the Council's then market manager Tony Gibson to administer, hence the advent of Permanent Stallholders.
Very shortly after this Council accepted that Permanent Stallholders could hand over their market business, with the attached market site, to a person of their choice.
1980s
By this time the Market had grown to about 150 stalls and now encompassed most of the lower part of Salamanca Place stretching from its origins near the Silos up to MontpellierMontpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....
Retreat. It was still possible to get a casual site simply by turning up at about 10am finding an empty space and erecting a table. The responsible Council
City of Hobart
The City of Hobart is a Local Government Area of Tasmania, Australia. It is one of three local government areas covering the metropolitan area of the state capital, Hobart.-Government:...
officer then walked round and collected the rent.
Early in 1984 a season's Winter Market centre aisle stall rent cost $254 and a season's Summer Market side stall rent $448. Within a very few years people were once more sleeping in their cars overnight, this time outside the Town Hall, in order to pay for the few remaining Permanent Sites as they were put up for rent.
In January 1987 Dr Finney of CACF announced that the Arts Centre
Arts centre
An art centre or arts center is distinct from an art gallery or art museum. An arts centre is a functional community centre with a specific remit to encourage arts practice and to provide facilities such as theatre space, gallery space, venues for musical performance, workshop areas, educational...
had debts of $300K and was in danger of financial collapse. He said the Centre needed to run both Summer and Winter Markets in order to trade out of trouble.
At about the same time the HCC's public relations officer announced that the Business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
Advisory Group might recommend that the Market be transferred to a Sunday if all day shopping was introduced in the City on a Saturday.
A petition
Petition
A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer....
opposing the Market moving to a Sunday and signed by 202 stallholders was presented to Council. Lord Mayor
Lord Mayor
The Lord Mayor is the title of the Mayor of a major city, with special recognition.-Commonwealth of Nations:* In Australia it is a political position. Australian cities with Lord Mayors: Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Newcastle, Parramatta, Perth, Sydney, and Wollongong...
Doone Kennedy subsequently stated in the press that Council had no intention of making such a change.
The Salamanca Stallholders Association was officially established on 19/2/87.
Later that year the Council took over the running of the Winter Market from the Arts Centre. In return the Council paid off a large part of the Centre's debt and undertook to pay them a grant
Grant (money)
Grants are funds disbursed by one party , often a Government Department, Corporation, Foundation or Trust, to a recipient, often a nonprofit entity, educational institution, business or an individual. In order to receive a grant, some form of "Grant Writing" often referred to as either a proposal...
of $50K every year from Salamanca Market rental income
Income
Income is the consumption and savings opportunity gained by an entity within a specified time frame, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. However, for households and individuals, "income is the sum of all the wages, salaries, profits, interests payments, rents and other forms of earnings...
. The Council still give the Arts Centre an annual Grant from this source.
Over the next year or so the Summer Market's opening hours were changed from 9am-1pm to 9am-2pm and the Winter Market rents were raised to the same level as those charged for the Summer Market. Up until then it had been recognised by the Arts Centre that Winter Market rents should be lower than Summer Market rents because stallholders' sales were much lower during the winter.
In 1988/9 Ingvar Nilsson became President of the Stallholders Association.
1990s
In April 1992 the Southern Star reported that Salamanca Market was one of Tasmania's premier tourist attractions, attended by between 10,000 and 12,000 people every week. The same article noted that after negotiations with the Stallholders' Association the Council had confirmed their existing policy that entitled Permanent Stallholders to, 'annual site renewal and the transfer of a market site when a permanent business was sold'. Later in the year the Market was extended up to Gladstone St in order to increase the number of sites available to Casual Stallholders.During 1993 the operating hours of the Market were increased from 9 am-2pm to 9am-3pm.
In 1995, more stalls were created in the car park area by the side of the Market near Montpellier Retreat and the sites were allocated to members of the Hmong
Hmong people
The Hmong , are an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Hmong are also one of the sub-groups of the Miao ethnicity in southern China...
Community
Community
The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...
.
After lobbying by Casual
Casual
In the European tradition, casual is the dress code that emphasizes comfort and personal expression over presentation and uniformity. It includes a very wide variety of costume, so it is perhaps better defined by what it isn't than what it is...
Stallholders, in 1996, many of the Casual sites created in 1992 between Montpellier Retreat and Gladstone St were assigned to qualified individuals as Permanent sites.
Subsequent to this action a further Market extension occurred, this time from Gladstone St to Davey
Davey Street, Hobart
Davey Street is one of the main streets of the central business district of the city of Hobart, capital of Tasmania, Australia. As well as forming the southern border of the CBD, it is part of the A6, technically making it part of the Huon Highway....
St, in order to accommodate Casuals into the future.
In 1998/9 a detailed feasibility study on the issue of a Sunday Market in Salamanca Place was undertaken and 3 Sunday Markets were trialed. They were not very successful and ongoing Sunday Markets in Salamanca Place were opposed by both the Stallholders Association and the Sullivans Cove Merchant's Association.
Since 2000
A series of Sunday Markets were run in Mawson Place during January and February 2001.In September 2009 the Council General Manager announced in the Mercury that Council had passed a proposal to change Salamanca Market from a Community Market to a Council owned independent profit making company. Concern about the lack of consultation
Public consultation
Public consultation, or simply consultation, is a regulatory process by which the public's input on matters affecting them is sought. Its main goals are in improving the efficiency, transparency and public involvement in large-scale projects or laws and policies...
on this proposal and how its implementation might effect their Market Businesses was expressed by stallholders.
About 12 Market Businesses with their attached Licences are sold every year. Some have paid up to $100K for their occupancy rights, but the average Market Business sale price is nearer $50K.
Salamanca Market has grown from 12 stalls in 1972 to 300 in 2010, becoming Tasmania's most visited tourist venue attracting up to 25,000 visitors every Saturday.