Coffee Kombi in the Lost Woods, begging for a battery

Back again at The Lost Woods Market in Emerald — second Saturday of every month, held under the gum trees beside the Puffing Billy Railway line. We've been a few times now, lately with our daughters Amber and Erin. Stalls thread between the trunks, someone's built a tiny gnome village into the base of one tree, and the air smells of pine needles.

Mostly.

Volks Coffee — a beautifully restored blue VW Kombi (plate CAFEVW) with a full espresso rig built into the back. Clever, gorgeous, exactly the sort of thing this market does brilliantly.

It's also running on a petrol generator sitting in the middle of the van. And it isn't alone — there must have been a dozen of them across the marquees, humming and stinking their way through the trees. Same back row as last year, same fumes. Together they pull a forest market back towards the noisy, smelly thing a forest market is supposed to be an escape from.

I keep thinking: what if every stall ran on a battery instead? An old Powerwall 2 the size of a small bar fridge can power a coffee machine all day. Or a stallholder simply backed an EV with V2L into the spot — a few kilowatts straight from the car, more than enough for a coffee setup and a fridge. We've seen V2L stalls at other markets; this one hasn't caught up.

We did spot a Kia EV9 driving through the market and tried to follow where it parked, in case that was exactly what someone had set up — but lost it among the trees.

Puffing Billy steamed in next door, all coal smoke and whistles, and got a heritage pass from me. The little petrol generators didn't.

Have you seen market stalls running from an EV or battery?