Peter Hackworth, one of Brisbane’s greatest cultural treasures, and her daughter Michaele Minx, are inviting Brisbane to celebrate 40 years of the Riverside Markets on Sunday, October 19.
Peter launched the Riverside Market back in 1986 at the newly built Riverside Plaza and then shifted the growing event to the City Botanic Gardens in 2015.
Now known as Riverside at the Gardens Market, it’s Brisbane’s longest-running public market, loved by the locals, students, families, and four-legged friends.
“Our marketeers become our family,” Peter explains, “and we see that feeling being passed on to the public. We get so many comments about how fabulous the markets are to experience.”
As a pioneering restaurateur and entrepreneur behind some of the region’s most loved outdoor markets and venues, Peter Hackworth has been making a unique contribution to Brisbane’s cultural and gastronomic landscape since she opened her first venture in Brisbane more than 60 years ago.
Offbeat, irrepressible, imaginative, eclectic, Peter brings together creative people to share their gifts with the wider community through bars, cafes, restaurants, and outdoor markets for arts, craft, drinks and food.
Peter opened the Primitif Café and jazz bar in Brisbane City’s Piccadilly Arcade in 1957, she was only 21 years old with a three-month old baby.
Thirty years later, Peter had the distinction of being elected president of the Queensland Restaurant and Caterers Association by her peers during the exciting days of World Expo 88.
Demonstrating her ability to see potential in Brisbane’s evolving urban environment, Peter was the visionary behind the hugely influential Eat Street Markets container concept in Hamilton, and has launched markets throughout central Brisbane: at the Riverside Centre, South Bank, West End, Dutton Park and Kelvin Grove.
Peter’s three grown children have inherited her passion and creative spark.
Her son Ben Hackworth is a film maker, and alongside their other career commitments, her two daughters run the markets with Peter – Gian Ferrett at the Kelvin Grove market and Michaele Minx at Riverside at the Gardens Market.
“I love working with my family and all the stallholders, who become our family,” Peter explains, “and we see that feeling being passed on to the public.”
The stallholders and market workers will be in fancy dress for the 40th birthday and celebrating all day with music and Brazilian dancing from Festival Tropicale, Puppet Shows by Puppetrix, free helium balloons from Balloons Galore, face painting, and a balloon-twisting clown from Amazing Kids Parties.
Everyone who makes a purchase on the day goes into a draw to win a goodie basket.
The Riverside at the Gardens Market offers a delicious array of ready-to-eat food and drink – perfect for Sunday breakfast, brunch or lunch, to sustain you when you’re out and about in the sunshine.
Choose from Thai, Vietnamese and Korean dishes, German sausages and French crepes, South American tacos and sandwiches, as well as juicy hamburgers and delightful dumplings.
You’ll find the best espresso coffee, juices freshly squeezed and bottled-to-go, exotic fruit crushes and slushies, and much more to tempt you … go explore!
Beech Mountain Distillery from the Scenic Rim will have a stall showcasing their new line of Gondwana Spirits made with purely native botanicals, including a very special gin, Botanica de Terra Australis. Visitors can buy a bottle or two to take home, or to drink there.
Jules Hoyle, the Master Distiller at Beech Mountain Distillery, is excited to be part of the festivities.
“What better way to celebrate the 40th birthday of our amazing Riverside at the Gardens family than to bring the very special Botanica de Terra Australis spirit range to the party and raise a toast or two for such a milestone.”
There are plenty of goodies to stock your kitchen cupboard at the Riverside at the Gardens Market, including spices and chutneys, honey, flower teas and a stall selling farm-fresh fruit and veggies, which is popular with inner city residents and workers for their weekly supply.
The locals also love the stall’s own-grown leafy greens and grabbing one of the generous containers of sliced fruit of all kinds to take-away.
You’ll have all the nourishment you need to shop in the fresh air for hand-painted silk scarves, cashmere wraps, hats of all kinds, groovy shirts, art, crafts, gifts, kitchenware, and a fabulous selection of jewellery from the traditional to the tribal.
Even after 40 years, Peter says she’s always looking for ways to raise the market standard and discover new stalls to bring into the market family.
“I love working with creatives and I admire the passion that goes into their work, so when we gain a wonderful new stall, it really improves the market’s overall vibe.”
As well as the Riverside at the Gardens Market on Sundays and the Kelvin Grove Village Markets on every Saturday, Peter can share the exciting news that they’re thinking about starting a Saturday market in leafy Bulimba.
