Record breaking crowds attended our Paluma Community Easter Market on Sunday.  Despite how the weather appeared as late as Friday night, the sun and Paluma blue skies put on a fabulous show and drew people from near and far to enjoy what our village market and community had to offer.  

There were a variety of stalls full of fresh local produce and preserves, plants, textile goods, Paluma souvenirs and Knick knacks. Loretta Brennan and her husband from Mutarnee had a table full of fresh goodies that were very popular.  Also, the lovely Kath who with Anne Briers, had an array of fascinating plants and produce as well as sweets and preserves that had people commenting.

Bobbi’s beautiful mini moss gardens and painted saws were once again a big hit with some customers taking photos of her lovely work. The colourful textile stall, “Stitches…” (apologies for not remembering the full name) had some gorgeous items which were popular.  The stall holders themselves were very pleased with the market as they doubled their takings compared to the last market.

The PDCA had its own stalls with fresh local produce, souvenirs, baked goods and preserves as well as an Easter hamper raffle.  All of which were popular and sold well.  It can be confirmed that this market made over two thousand dollars for the PDCA as a result of the tremendous efforts of our community. 

The PDCA sincerely thanks all of those amazing PKRs! (Paluma Kitchen Rockstars!) who helped make this Easter Market such a success. And to all the ‘quiet achievers’ who organised, lifted, swept, washed, cleaned, cooked, made the tea and coffee, served the public, were accountable for the money… a heartfelt “thank you”.

Our next market will be on June 23rd, and if you would like to be part of it either volunteering or hosting your own stall, please contact Wilfred Karnoll or any other PDCA executive member.

The PDCA would like to thank everybody for their combined efforts to make Paluma’s final market day of the year and the NRL grand final viewing in the hall such a great success this past Sunday.

Locals and tourists alike were a strong and steady flow starting quite early in the day. The bbq didn’t shut down till quite a bit after 12pm and did great business with many coming back for seconds (and thirds) for “‘the lot’ please, that bbq-ed pineapple is amazing!”

The hall was filled with chatter and laughs with some shoppers making beelines to the baked goods stalls and others slowly meandering and enjoying the sport of browsing and selecting what they desired. Our community was on show and did itself proud at these markets. So many smiles.

The NRL grand final evening was also an opportunity to quietly socialise prior to the game for some of the locals as well as an opportunity for all – locals and visitors – to watch the footy showdown on the ‘big screen’.

Our PDCA treasurer, Wilfred Karnoll, is likely still grinning as this post ‘goes to air’ as the markets and grand final viewing made a net total of $1366 for our community. This success comes with effort from all the volunteers who:

• worked hard to ensure the hall was ready for vendors and shoppers alike;
• Made the effort to set up their own stall to raise funds for the rural fire service
• ensured all ran smoothly throughout the duration of the market;
• prepared many a preserve, cake, slice, cookie and sweet and savoury treat for the PDCA bake stall
• Collected fresh produce and plants from local growers for the PDCA fresh produce stall
• sliced, diced, shredded, mixed, bbq-ed, served, washed, dried…

…and smiled through it all.

A great big “Thank You” to our volunteers. Your service makes our community stronger. As Wilfred said, “…just goes to show what a small community like ours can do when we all pull together.”

Text and photos by J. Poletto unless noted otherwise