Wednesday 19 September 2012

HOARDAX GOES TO THE MILL MARKETS IN DAYLESFORD FOR A HOARD HUNT!


What is HOARD HUNTING? 

Hoard Hunting occurs any time Hoardax steps into a place like a Sunday Market or Savers or even K-Mart and comes across nice things he finds interesting. Often, he doesn't actually buy anything but nevertheless wants to share them with YOU - The wonderful Hoard Worlders.

It's American Pickers meets Antiques Roadshow meets Hardcore Pawn. Kinda.

It's also a slightly sneaky act of hoarding items by photographing them. Much cheaper. Takes up way less space.

On this particular adventure off-planet, Skorpia and I travelled to the far away land of regional Victoria, Daylesford. Spa Country. I was due for my yearly bath anyway.











Amongst many activities completely unrelated to hoarding, we ate and drank at the best place I've ever eaten or drank at. Breakfast And Beer. You should definitely check it out if you're ever there. Their beer selection is exquisite. Their food is supernaturally good. And upon request they can tailor-make a dining experience that specifically matches the beer with the food - which is just amazing.

But the place where all the Hoard Hunting took place was at The Mill Markets.



The Mill Markets are essentially the weekly Sunday Trash 'n' Treasure stalls of old, made available 7 days a week. One part thrift store, two parts wacky garage sale - add just a dash of opportunity shop all combined into one enormous in-door car boot sale. I don't even know what I just said - you get the drift.

They originally began in Australia in 1985 as Pioneer Cottage Antiques and just 15 stallholders. It has since expanded exponentially.

For each Mill Markets venue, you effectively have a bunch of stallholders coming together under the one roof meaning that smaller sellers have a place to display their wares in a high-traffic retail environment without any of the expensive overheads and costs of a retail space.

Don't get me wrong. It still costs money to display your wares but it's much cheaper rent. All stallholders are also required to do a minimum number of shifts behind the counter as part of their contract with The Mill. I'd be all over THAT and overall it's something that Hoard World would be looking into doing at some point in the future.

If you're one of our beloved international Hoard Worlders, feel free to disregard the entire upcoming paragraph unless you plan on visiting Victoria, Australia any time soon.

Currently, Mill Markets are at seven locations across Victoria - Newcomb, Daylesford, Rex Theatre Arcade  (Daylesford), Ballarat, Warnambool, Geelong and North Geelong. Predominantly "rural." These are obviously out of the inner city or even suburban limits but apparently The Mill Markets have been so successful with this particular business model since 2002 that they'll soon be expanding to Melbourne and interstate.


These are the stairs leading up to the Mill Markets - listing some of the nice things you could potentially find upstairs. Collectables or Collectibles? It's a contentious piece of pedantry. Which one should you use? What's the difference? Hey! Don't look at  me! I'm a visitor on your world.


There's nothing I like more than strange Monkey items. I have no idea what this is. Anybody out there on Hoard World know?


More Monkeys. Little ones this time around. Drinking tea. Picking flowers. Eating narnies. You know. Monkey stuff.


This fantastic ROBOT was heavily discounted from $225 to $95. I coveted him quite much. Anybody seen one of these before? He apparently still worked. I wonder what he does.


There was quite a bit of Rat Fink stuff floating about, particularly near stalls relating to motoring. The framed Ed "Big Daddy" Roth art and the custom Rat Fink plastic standee display were pretty cool I thought.


Amongst a bunch of motoring memorabilia there was this nice little Michelin Man display. I used to get him confused with The Staypuft Marshmallow Man as a young Hoardax. I probably would have liked a Michelin Man doll, to be honest. I thought the light-up Michelin Man was pretty boss.


Vintage UN-OPENED Pall Mall cigarettes from the 60s. I bet they're stale as. Miniature Vintage Johnnie Walker bottles?

This was an adorable tin toys arrangement. I know it makes me a massive hipster but I love the cassette tape bag on top of the glass display. 


 Bizarre to see a Golden Book of Walt Disney's Uncle Remus (from the controversial Song Of The South)
just sitting there for five bucks. It seems out of time despite the fact that Brer Rabbit Stories were still being released on Audio Story Book right up until the late 70s and Song Of The South was released outside the US on VHS in the 80s, so I kinda grew up with it also. I never understood the racism associated with it as a child.

Fabulous designer tea sets and jewellery from Jubly_Umph. Check 'em out!


The dormant Dr. Who fan in me especially appreciated this little guy here. Oh, Daleks. How quaint!
EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! WE DRINK THE SUPERIOR TEA!

This is a fantastic daybill of COFFY starring Pam Grier. However, it was priced in pencil at $150!!! 
And it was PINNED to the wall!  I know, right?


It was only $180 - I was so curious. I wanted to play that Star Wars Home Television Game SO badly. Anybody ever have one of these? I wonder if that stallholder that got caught in the shot knows she's Hoard World famous? Probably not.


The site of the Mill that this particular Hoard Hunt explored is The Rex Theatre in Daylesford. It's a newer venue for them, noticeably smaller than their gigantic other Daylesford Mill. It's built within the old Rex Theatre (as the name still references) and I guess this old-timey projector remains to pay homage to the past.

And that's it! I hope you enjoyed coming on this journey with me. Naturally you didn't really. I had the journey and you've just looked at a stack of pics. I did the hard yards. But should you ever find yourself in The Spa Country that is Daylesford or any one of the other Mill Markets venues, you now know what to expect!

You can Hoard Hunt too by posting pics of things you've come across and found interesting over on the Hoard Word facebook page.

Most of the time though, Hoardax is live updating the Hoard Hunting quotient of Hoard World over on Twitter - taking pics of stuff as he sees them like this or here, over here and right there.

There's also a Hoard Hunting Pinterest Board HERE.


Until next time,

Happy Hoard Hunting!

yr pal,

Hoardax.

No comments:

Post a Comment