Market managers Geraldine and Alston McKay are excited to be developing “something that’s beneficial to a lot of other people”.

In Dubbo this week to prepare for the market on Sunday, the Mullaley couple told of shops “opening specially for the market because they get extra trade” and cafes being “run off their feet”.

Mrs McKay said major retailer Myer Dubbo was extending its hours.

“Myer has really embraced the project and they’re opening a couple of hours earlier on market day than what they do on a normal Sunday,” she said.

“Hundreds” of people attend the market that features stalls on each side of the street, between the Riverdale Shopping Centre crossing and Myer Dubbo.

In nine months they have grown from 20 to 40 with a range of goods on sale including clothing, accessories, home decor and garden art.

A former chairwoman of Macquarie Valley Food and Wine that runs Dubbo Farmers Market, Mrs McKay is sure that  “we can do more”.

She points to burgeoning street markets in Armidale and Tamworth, where a 2015 pre-Christmas market drew 96 stalls.

A bigger Dubbo Rotunda Market would give more businesses confidence to open on the fourth Sunday of the month, Mrs McKay said.

She said the market was boosting jobs and encouraging regional stallholders to spend a night in the city.

“We’ve been putting brochures in motels and caravan parks,” Mrs McKay said.

“We want to get the tourist to spend another night in Dubbo.”

 The farming couple make money from a stall they run at the market.

Mrs McKay said all stallholder fees were being invested in advertising in Dubbo.

The market was born out of Western Plains Regional Council’s Ignite Our Centre program.

“We could see that atmosphere could come back into the street,” Mrs McKay said.

The markets run from 8am to 1pm.

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