Small events such as farmers’ markets might look like a twee country novelty to an outsider, but research shows they are a powerful force in community connection, reports STEPHANIE GARDINER.

A narrow road weaves through sandstone ridges, beneath avenues of eucalypts, over a creek and past a paddock of grazing camels. 

At the end of the road on the edge of the NSW Blue Mountains, villagers gather at a farmers market under tents lined with colourful bunting flapping in the warm breeze.

The people of Tarana – there’s about 100 of them – tuck into bacon-and-egg rolls, peruse fresh cuts of meat, sip local mead, taste truffle vinegar and coo over a cardboard box of chirping chicks for sale at $10 each.

Bouquets of blooms are for sale, alongside hazelnuts and native saplings, while a man in a bowler hat sells handmade leather stock whips.

As customers cup fresh tomatoes in their hands and smell ripe peaches at the Hartley Harvest stall, they open up to grower Denise Mole.

They tell her what’s troubling them, what they want to see change in their community – that bumpy, narrow road, for one – and who they’re thinking of voting for.

“It’s this sense of community and it’s uninhibited and I don’t judge,” Ms Mole told AAP, pulling a long trail of receipts from her EFTPOS machine tucked between baskets of produce.

“We get to talk about these tiny local issues, like the potholes in the road and how much rain we’ve had.

“I talk to customers month after month and I look forward to it, they look forward to it.”

From the outside, the markets may look like nothing more than a twee country novelty.

But research by the University of South Australia has found these kinds of small events wield an incredible social power and create strong communities.

A survey of households in Adelaide’s Holdfast Bay – alongside work with other Australian councils – found people who attend, organise or exhibit at community events have a stronger sense of place than those who don’t.

The notion of a sense of place is measured through attachment, dependency and identity of a place, events and tourism management researcher Sunny Son said.

“The concept has received increasing attention from local governments as residents with a strong sense of place play a crucial role in fostering socially sustainable and connected communities,” Dr Son said.

“That can lead to enhanced safety, improved wellbeing and health and overall better quality of life in that area.”

Events have a greater hold on a person’s connection to their community than simply living in one place for a long time, the research found.

They also tie people together in loosely-connected communities, such as new suburbs and multicultural areas.

The Tarana markets, which began as a way to raise money for the Rural Fire Service, have spawned several new social groups.

A group of musicians first hired for the markets have formed a band that regularly plays at parties, while groups of tree-changers have been brought together and farmers see more of each other off their land.

In a region that was hit in quick succession by drought, Black Summer bushfires and COVID-19 lockdowns, the markets proved to be one hopeful constant.

“For the farming men, quite often they’re down there on a Sunday morning wandering around and talking to their friends,” markets coordinator Diana Ditchfield said.

“For all the older people on their farms it can be a very lonely existence, when times are tough especially.”

Community events serve as an important “third place”, at a time when international research shows they are vanishing, Dr Son said.

Third places are where people can find connection and socialise outside the home and workplace, like in cafes, churches and libraries.

For Jacqui McGrath, a nurse who moved from Sydney to Oberon, several local markets have been her entry point into a new community.

She takes meat offcuts from her partner’s butchery business to make dog food under a brand called Wacky Jacqui’s Treats.

Duck eggs, succulents and those little chirping chicks are also among her wares.

“It’s such a massive part of the community coming together and working together,” Ms McGrath said.

“We show what we do and who we are.”