Cairns shopping and markets
You can find a market in Cairns or the nearby regions every weekend (and most weekdays).
Regular markets are held in throughout Cairns in different beach, city and suburban locations including regular markets at Tanks Arts Centre, Holloways Beach, suburban Woree and rural Gordonvale.
Cairns is home to many artisans, crafty and handy types who make incredible pieces of furniture, home wares and jewellery out of packing crates, paint, coconut palm fronds, thread, fabric and re-purposed packaging.
In addition to the local talent, Cairns plays host to a steady stream of travelling artisans who pop up at the markets, selling their wares to further their travels.
Further afield, there are country market circuits around the Far North Queensland an hour or two drive away in the nearby Atherton Tablelands, Mareeba, Cardwell, Innisfail and Mission Beach areas. The Port Douglas and Mossman region also hosts regular markets.
Fresh food grown locally around Cairns
Cairns is a food-lovers’ paradise. Shopping in Cairns, we can feast on wild-caught seafood from pristine oceans that can be purchased directly from the boats.
We can buy 'happy eggs' as well as 'happy tomatoes' from the famous Rusty's Market. Rusty's is a fresh food weekend market that pops up in the city centre, from Friday to Sunday. A visit to Rusty's is a weekly ritual for many locals. You can buy a wide range of fresh locally-grown produce on nearby farms.
We can also buy gourmet baked goods, great coffee, vegetarian offerings and street food from long-time locals who celebrate their cultural heritage and their cooking from many countries near and far.
The Atherton Tablelands, just a one-hour drive, is a veritable food bowl, growing just about every vegetable you could name, and an array of tropical fruits, as well as macadamia nuts, coffee beans and chocolate.
Boho to boutique
Shopping in Cairns can be local and low-key or take in high-end luxury outlet and big-name brands.
For that day-to-day, kind of outing (shopping list: new t-shirt, phone charger, groceries), we have 10 shopping centres throughout the Cairns region, featuring major supermarket chains and speciality shops. Cairns is also home to a DFO (Direct Factory Outlets) and fresh food market.
Cairns shopping centres
Our biggest shopping centres in Cairns are:
- North of the city and servicing the beaches - Smithfield Shopping Centre and Clifton Shopping Village
- In the city centre and city fringe - Cairns Central and DFO Cairns the city and immediate surrounds
- Western suburbs - Redlynch Central Shopping Centre
- South of the city - Earlville Shopping Town and Mount Sheridan Plaza
Luxury shopping
Cairns has luxury fashion and retail shopping outlets you might find in a capital city, including couture labels and exclusive boutiques stocking an exclusive range of high-end Australian and international names in the Cairns CBD Shopping Precinct.
Find something quirky in Cairns arcades and laneways
If vintage furniture, records, second-hand books or hand-made jewellery is your style of shopping, a good place to start is Oceana Walk, an arcade in the city that runs between Grafton Street and Lake Street. Within a two-block radius of Oceana Walk, there are several op shops and collectives that stock locally-made crafts, wares and accessories.
Mainstreet Arcade also has an eclectic mix of food, fashion and fitness with many multicultural flavours.
On the outskirts of the city along the main road in and out of town - Sheridan St - look for the life-sized kewpie doll outside Crackerbox Palace, a vintage store housed in an art deco building that has been operating in Cairns for more than 20 years.
