Torrens Island Market: Port Adelaide. With Keith Conlon

Say Port Adelaide and we see the red light house and the picturesque inner basin with perhaps a tall ship moored for added character, but say Sunday in Port Adelaide and all roads lead further down the Port River to the colourful, buzzing Torrens Island Market. It overlooks the North Arm with its fishing fleet crowded into the moorings below and the towering chimneys of Torrens Island Power Station across the reach.

Setting up for a golden sunrise shot from across the Garden Island Bridge, we snared more than we bargained for. A giant grain carrier slid by along the main channel, dwarfing the market in front of it and looking like it would plunge into the packed market place. The pelicans were unperturbed, as they're always round when the fishing stalls are. And they are definitely a part of Sunday morning here. So is a bargain - it's an institution here too.

"Lovely red tomatoes. You gotta buy them, lovely ladies."

Spruiker Stephen came to Adelaide from Greece about forty years ago. He has an exotic version of how Port Adelaide produce market began - something to do with Gawler River potatoes he and his brother grew but the real story goes back much further.

There is a contagious camaraderie between stall holders and their regular customers on Sundays at the North Arm. It is a familiarity born of decades of the same stall holders setting up their market garden greens …. and reds and aubergines and more. They all moved here from a Birkinhead Bridge site in 1976, and that site goes back to informal beginnings round the old fishing boat wharf in the 1930's.

Pepino and Eve, for example, are almond processors during the week and that explains the enticing array of nuts on their founder-stall. Then there are their market specials like home-made chilli olives.

"And what are these Pepino?" I asked, looking at a bucket of beans in a clear liquid.

"Raw Lupins soaked in brine to take away the bitterness. They're good for the digestive system, Keith. Try one!"

In the bristling central aisle between two long rows of mainly fruit and vegetable stalls you will bump into tourists from far away or thrifty families sometimes buying by the bagful for neighbours as well. Among the six thousand shoppers each Sunday there'll also be several restaurateurs doing business by the boxful. Rick Albonese is a second generation market man with a handful of growers at Waterloo Corner producing the lush piles of herb bunches for his stall. Jimmy from the high profile Eros restaurant in the city's East End was buying in bulk as we gathered pictures.

During the week it is a deserted compound fronting the gulf fishing fleet wharves, but come the dawn each Sunday and all the pieces return to create a moving mosaic of post war migration. It was a transforming movement of families, many of whom took up market gardening close to the city. Lewie and Millie Kostoff came from Macedonia and they are still growing tomatoes near Football Park at Seaton forty years later. Millies "Trimmer" pickled chillies in a jar are legendary.

"When do you eat these, Millie?"

"We have them on the table with every meal!"

"They're nice to eat anytime… with a little drink," She added with a wicked smile.

Chris Tryfopoulos next door still grows all the produce on his stall with his son John, and has done it since 1962. Down the row, a young Greek couple have recently blossomed in a new direction in their family's Virginia market-garden property. Pots of perky violas and pansies and herbs add more colour to the market.

You want to know where to get the best fresh fish? Ask a Port River pelican or dolphin and they'll recommend this Sunday market. After all, they are regulars, crowding around and squabbling at the back of the specially built floating fish market sharf. Any fresher and the whiting and tommyruffs would be swimming in the gulf. That's where Ron Lockwood's family has been fishing for four generations. It was the move of the gulf fleets moorings to the North Arm inlet to the Southern end of Torrens Island that brought the market - and Ron's stall - here too. His daughters help hand over the garfish and other bargains.

On the next boat that's backed in, Vince casts an experienced eye over the banter and barter. Seventy years of commercial fishing later, he's still on deck with his son Angy, one of seven boat owners who are here every week. "Fresh cockles! Cheap cockles!" shouts his offsider, Gabby. They are back from a two or three day run net-fishing. Fishing in Gulf St Vincent. The cockles are dug at the Black Pole sand bank a few kilometres up.

"How are the King George Whiting?," I asked John on the next boat.

"They're getting a bit easier to find - they came inshore in the colder, rougher weather."

They're another good reason for making an early start and grabbing a good buy at this traditional market. The fish and produce sections are set up by 7:00 am and it gets really busy after 9:00 am. Some of the stall holders are packing up by noon, and it's all over by 1:00 pm. Get onto the Grand Trunkway at Port Adelaide and head towards the landmark chimneys of Torrens Island Power Station. Just follow the signs and the stream of cars turning into the North Arm past the shipyards and you're soon amongst a special shopping and cultural experience - the Torrens Island Market.

The Torrens Island Open Air Market
Moorhouse Rd Via The Grand Trunkway
Port Adelaide, South Australia.

Enquiries 0403 054 650

Fax 8242 3528

Email rogerhayes@iprimus.com.au

Sundays 6:00 am - 1:00 pm