Maryborough Station Antique Emporium

The Maryborough Station Antique Emporium is located in Maryborough, Central Victoria, about 2 hours drive from Melbourne. It's housed in the beautiful Maryborough Station, which is being cleaned and restored and the building itself is well worth a look. The antiques "emporium" part of the building actually doesn't take up that much space. The main antiques are housed in a room off the cafe and mainly consist of small furniture, porcelain and other small items such as jewellery, enamel signs and glassware. There are also new materials in the same room, such as silver jewellery and art vases. In general, I do not think there are enough antiques, or that they are of a high enough quality, to warrant repeated visits. Also, the service can be pretty shoddy. Last time we were there, we inquired about the prices of a couple of items that didn't have price tags. They were unwilling to even attempt to phone the dealers or take our details to give to the dealers next time they were in - both things that are standard practice at other antique centres. Also, when we did purchase something, one person didn't know how to use the eftpos machine, and then the other charged us the wrong amount! I understand that centres like these are mostly staffed by the dealers who put in a certain number of hours each week - but in most of the other antique centres, they ensure their dealers know how to do basic things like take a sale!

It was funny we bought anything at all, as we had actually gone for the food. The Station Cafe is a fantastic place for lunch, and uses local produce and wines almost exclusively. Everything is homemade on the premises and the menu is constantly changing. The cafe is a nice place to sit and has many of the original features of the station. However, the high ceilings mean it can get noisy during the lunch hour(s) if a bus tour or similar arrives.

While I would not recommend the Maryborough Station as a place to visit solely for the antiques, it does make a nice day trip to drive up through central Victoria and have lunch in the station cafe before taking a quick look at the antiques. I should also note that they have an outdoor antique and collectables market at the Station which is held about three times a year.

Summary: Maryborough Station Antique Emporium
Railway Station, Maryborough, Victoria, 3465 Australia
Ph: 54614683

Bendigo Easter Antique Fair

The Bendigo Easter Antique Fair was held over the Easter long weekend in Kangaroo Flat, just outside Bendigo. It featured dealers from all over Victoria and some from South Australia and New South Wales. The majority of the dealers had small items like small silver, jewellery and porcelain. There was not much furniture. While there were a few stalls with very high-quality products, most of the stalls had a mixture of junk and better-quality, meaning a fair amount of digging was required to find anything of value. There was one stall of second-hand clothing which had some neat things from the 1940s and 50s and a couple of stalls with asian antiques, including some satsuma-ware and jade.

All in all, it was a decent fair for its size (two rooms; a circuit could be done in 30 mins easily) and was mostly reasonably priced, although I thought some of the interstate dealers were quite high. However, I do wonder about the viability of this fair so close to the (much larger) Ballarat Antique Fair which had many of the same dealers. I would not put the Bendigo Fair on a list of "required fairs to attend" but it was enjoyable, all the same.

Tyabb Packing House Antiques Centre

Tyabb, about 60km from Melbourne, is a well known Antiques area. The largest centre in Tyabb is the Tyabb Packing House Antiques Centre . They claim it's the largest collection of antiques and collectables in Australia.

Tyabb Packing House Antiques Centre is divided into a number of complexes; the largest is the Packing House itself, which houses the majority of the antique dealers, the toilets and cafe. Behind the Packing House, there's a bunch of little stores and buildings which house anything from antiques, local crafts and what can only be described as junk. Not that I have anything against junk!

Highlights of the Packing House include antique costumes and accessories (stall in the main hall of the packing house to the left of the entrance); jewellery; books; china and porcelain, particularly Beswick and Royal Doulton. In general, there is a good turnover of stock meaning that it is always good to visit again and look at the new things.

A couple other stalls always worth a look are the stall to the right of the entrance - it's all colour coded and has all sorts of interesting stuff including chairs, some clothing and accessories such as parasols, and small glassware and porcelain such as wine decanters and teacups and saucers. Today she also had two giant portraits of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert up for grabs. Another stall is the art deco stall near the cafe. The dealer has only moved in recently and has some great art deco items including some great cigarette holders and picnic baskets.

I should also note that there is a lot of furniture of varying quality. There's a lot of traditional Australian-made stuff - not my thing but if you're into it, it's worth a look. The stalls in the middle have a selection of more high-quality mahogany and walnut furniture but I would advise checking the quality of it as it can vary.

I also highly recommend the cafe for lunch or afternoon tea. They are licensed and do great alcoholic milkshakes and serve a variety of local wines. They also serve lunches such as pasta, pies and baguettes and have a range of cakes for dessert. The quality is good and the menu changes regularly. Service is quick but it can get a bit frantic between 12-2 on the weekends.

Tyabb is well known as an antiques area and weekends can be very busy with coachloads of tourists. However, the Packing House is usually large enough that it isn't a problem.

Summary:
Tyabb Packing House Antiques Centre
14 Mornington-Tyabb Road, 3913.
Ph: (03) 5977 4414
Open: 10am - 5pm Thursday to Sunday and Public Holidays

Welcome

Welcome to Antiques in Melbourne, a new blog to document the various antique shops, centres and fairs on/around/in Melbourne (and possibly some other places if the opportunity arises!).

I've added a calendar so that fairs and other events can be added. Please email me or leave a comment if there's any event you want added.

The links and info is a work in progress so again please comment or email if there's a particular site you want listed.