It’s 5am on a Friday, and Rusty’s Markets has just opened.<\/p>\n
Stallholders have been setting up for hours, readying themselves for the thousands of people who will walk through the pavilion over the weekend.<\/p>\n
This has been the routine for decades, and as the landmark Cairns markets celebrate their 50th anniversary, the bustling hive of stalls is testament to their popularity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rusty’s Markets began with a dirt floor in 1975. (ABC Far North: Sophie Johnson)<\/p>\n
Rusty’s has come a long way from the early days when the marketplace was just a dirt floor, with a handful of stallholders selling goods from the back of their cars.<\/p>\n
Over the years, more than 180 stores have found a home here.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rusty’s Markets are a landmark destination in Cairns. (ABC Far North: Sophie Johnson)<\/p>\n
It all started with the hippies<\/p>\n
The markets were established in 1975 by Emrys “Rusty” Rees, who saw an opportunity to help nearby farmers sell produce directly to the public.<\/p>\n
His son, Wayne Rees, 74, said hippies initially hired out the space from Rusty to start a Saturday morning market, but that venture didn’t last long.<\/p>\n
“They disappeared after a few months, so my old man started [Rusty’s Markets], kept it going,” Mr Rees said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Wayne Rees says his father would be proud of how the markets have evolved. (ABC Far North: Brendan Mounter)<\/p>\n
He said his father wanted farmers to get a fair price for their goods.<\/p>\n
“He knew a lot of the farmers, and a lot of the farmers were getting ripped off by wholesalers, so he said to them, ‘Why don’t you come to the market?’<\/p>\n
“He just saw an opportunity where the farmers and the public of Cairns could have a win-win situation.”<\/p>\n
Local farmers sell their produce directly to the public at the markets. (ABC Far North: Sophie Johnson)<\/p>\n
Rusty’s vision has grown into a tourism drawcard.<\/p>\n
“People have come to Cairns and know of Rusty’s Markets,” Mr Rees said.<\/p>\n
“Then they go back to their country and tell their friends, ‘If you go to Cairns, you’ve got to go to the market.'”<\/p>\n
Although his father died 25 years ago, Mr Rees said his legacy had lived on through the markets.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A variety of produce and other goods are sold at Rusty’s Markets. (ABC Far North: Sophie Johnson)<\/p>\n
Decades of stallholders<\/p>\n
The markets are the primary source of income for farmer Ricky Lee, who has sold fresh produce from his Innisfail farm for three decades.<\/p>\n
He started with a 2-square-metre table, selling mostly bananas.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ricky Lee has been selling fresh fruit and vegetables at the markets for about 30 years. (ABC Far North: Sophie Johnson)<\/p>\n
“We’ve got four cubicles now,” Mr Lee said.<\/p>\n
“We try to get as much as we can from our farm and then from the local growers around the place.”<\/p>\n
Heidi Piccolo’s family flower stall, Basilisk Blooms, has also operated from the markets for about 30 years.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Heidi Piccolo says her flowers are sold around the world thanks to their exposure at Rusty’s Markets. (ABC Far North: Sophie Johnson)<\/p>\n
“People from all over the world come to Cairns, not just to go out to the reef, but to \u2026 see Rusty’s Markets and [it’s] put us on the world stage,” she said.<\/p>\n
“These [flowers] go all around the world, they go all around Australia.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s 5am on a Friday, and Rusty’s Markets has just opened. Stallholders have been setting up for hours,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,72,20666,14942,20662,20665,3389,171,20664,20661,20659,20658,20667,20663,20660,3142],"class_list":["post-19806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-cairns","tag-farmers","tag-fruit","tag-heidi-piccolo","tag-hippies","tag-international","tag-markets","tag-produce","tag-ricky-lee","tag-rusty-rees","tag-rustys-markets","tag-stall","tag-vegetable","tag-wayne-rees","tag-worldwide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}