My 1 week in Australia last month included a whole 3 ½ hours in Melbourne before heading out to Bendigo to spend as much time as possible snuggling my newborn nephew and two lovely nieces.
Fortunately, good advice from a Melbourne-born friend saw me head straight to the Fitzroy area of town – vintage/retro/handmade heaven!
First stop was the Rose Street Market – “Australia’s Premier Art and Design Market” where I wandered around and around and around again (just because I could – no kids with me – wheeeeee!)

Having borrowed a sensible grown up kind of bag from Steph and suddenly “needing” one of my very own I pounced on cybertart’s stall, a veritable candy store of modern illustrations turned into wearable art of the carrying kind. Melbourne designed, Melbourne made. The range of bag sizes and styles and choice of illustrations left me literally not able to decide! I had to go for a coffee (several times) before I finally decided on “Alice in her party dress” in a larger messenger bag style. A cool feature of these bags is the zip off illustrated panel. Yup, you can collect ‘em all and zip ‘em on according to your mood. So happy to have a sensible grown up bag of my own!



My other very very favourite stall was “Retro Print Revival.” Check out these amazing lamps made with stunning vintage/retro fabric. Ooooooh, the Holly Hobby one!



After the market I dashed up Brunswick Street, popping in and out of the many design and vintage stores along the street. Hunter Gatherer (274 Brunswick Street) is an initiative of the Brotherhood of St Lawrence and had a fabulous range of reasonably priced vintage pieces.


Somewhere between an op shop and a high end vintage store the carefully selected range of men’s, women’s and children’s clothing eliminates the need for rifling through racks of discarded pilled polar-fleece numbers to find a retro treasure. I picked up lovely orange wool cardy, as new – obviously “meant to be!”
Power walking on up the street I was so excited to stumble upon the legendary “Meet Me At Mikes” and browse for a few minutes. Looooved this Raggedy Ann and Andy clock!

The fun and games continued once I reached the Bendigo area and I have to mention the amazing Empire Line (upstairs 67 Vincent Street, Daylesford) again with an impressive array of retro treasures – clothing, accessories, and memorabilia.



The town has a number of design stores, especially with an eco focus where you’ll find everyday goods crafted creatively from all manner of materials such as recycled wooden chopsticks and car tyres.
Bendigo itself is home to bob boutique, Amazing Adventures in the Land of Bob, a weeny store with rather random opening hours and an excellent selection of “quality, cute and kooky, quaint and quirky products” – one off, limited edition and handmade.
I’ll finish now with a photo of the main reason for my happy travels, the gorgeous Wynton Alec Oldfield with proud Aunty Rach modelling the above mentioned orange cardy.

I still look good holding a newborn, no?