Sunshine Coast Markets: Hinterland Saturday, Coast Sunday

The Sunshine Coast runs to a simple split. Up the range, the country markets trade on Saturday morning. Along the coast, the big markets are on Sunday. Eumundi sits between the two on Wednesday and Saturday, and two twilight markets cover Friday night.

So if you have a weekend, do the hinterland on Saturday and the coast on Sunday. Everything here starts early, and most of it is packed up by noon.

Eumundi, on a Wednesday or a Saturday

Eumundi Markets started in 1979 with three stallholders around the CWA Hall, eight visitors and $30 of takings. It is now commonly described as the biggest art and craft market in Australia, with an estimated 1.2 million visitors a year. The rule from the start was that everything sold has to be locally made, which is why it still reads as craft rather than souvenirs.

It trades Wednesday and Saturday, 7:30am to 2pm, rain or shine. Saturday is the full experience: the tour buses, the crowd, the hardest parking. Wednesday is quieter, and better if you came to browse. Leave room for the ginger beer and the German sausage.

Saturday up the range

Three weekly country markets run on Saturday morning. Yandina Country Markets has run every Saturday since 1990 at the sports ground on North Street, 6am to noon. It is known for plants, produce and second-hand goods, and the best plants go early. It is a short drive from Eumundi, so you can do both on the same Saturday.

Further north, Pomona Country Markets runs in Stan Topper Park from 7am to noon, rain, hail or shine, with live music from ten. At noon the town's Majestic Theatre screens a silent film. It was built in 1921, and it's described as the oldest silent movie theatre still operating. Kenilworth Market in the Mary Valley runs later, 8am to 1:30pm, with honey, relishes and seedlings, and it suits a slow drive through the valley.

Then there are the monthly ones on the Blackall Range, each on its own Saturday:

• First Saturday: Crystal Waters Eco Village Markets on the village green of a permaculture community near Conondale. Wood-fired sourdough, organic vegetables and seedlings. It's a wildlife sanctuary, so no dogs, and bring cash because phone reception is patchy. No market in January.

• Second Saturday: Montville Growers and Makers Market around the village hall, 7:30am to noon, with a volunteer-cooked pancake breakfast. Peachester Mountain Market is the same morning in the grounds of Peachester State School, from 8am.

• Third Saturday: Witta Market on five acres of shady parkland at the Old Witta School near Maleny, 7am to noon, with produce, art and musicians.

Saturday on the coast

Kawana Waters Farmers Markets runs every Saturday morning at Kawana State School and has done since 2012. Reviewers often rank it among the best farmers markets on the coast for its produce, coffee, bread, eggs and honey. Arrive early for the bakery.

Sunday is the coast's day

Noosa Farmers Market in Noosaville is the food market of the north. The Stanley family founded it more than twenty years ago and still runs it, buying directly from regional growers. Expect organic produce, bread, cheese and a hot breakfast. It wraps up by midday.

In Maroochydore, two Sunday markets run a few minutes apart, so make sure you know which one you're heading for. Cotton Tree Markets is on King Street by the river mouth, 7am to noon, run by Bloomhill Cancer Care. Fishermans Road Sunday Markets runs from 6am to noon on the corner of David Low Way. The Mooloolaba Lions have run it unpaid for more than 20 years, and it publishes a list of about 60 organisations it has given to. It has an ATM on site and dogs on a lead are welcome.

To the south, Caloundra Street Fair closes Bulcock Street every Sunday from 8am to 1pm, with the shops open alongside and Bulcock Beach at the end of the street. To the north, Peregian Beach Market puts more than 100 stalls between the surf club and the sand on the first and third Sundays, 7am to 12:30pm. The surf club has run it since 1985, and the money goes back to the club.

In the hinterland, Sunday is quiet. Nambour Rummagers Market is the exception, with vintage and second-hand stalls on the library forecourt on the third Sunday, 9am to noon. The 2026 season ends on 15 November and it returns in February 2027.

Driving up from Brisbane, Caboolture Country Markets is on the way: 5am to 11:30am at the showgrounds, more than 500 stalls, and a poultry nursery selling live hens and ducks.

Friday night

Marcoola Twilight Market sets up on the beachfront every Friday from 4pm to 8pm. It's a food truck market, with a different line-up each week chosen by the regional food truck association, and people eat on the grass with the surf in view. Currimundi Twilight Market is the monthly one, on the third Friday from 4pm to 8pm beside Currimundi Lake. It has up to twenty food vendors and a licensed bar, and it doesn't run in June or July. At both, the food queues build from about half past five.

Two that work differently

Sunshine Coast Vintage Market is now a shop: about fifteen vintage sellers sharing a space on Mooloolaba Esplanade, open Wednesday to Sunday from 10am to 4pm. Sunshine Coast Collective Markets holds a curated pop-up at Alexandra Headland on four Saturdays a year in the school holidays, alongside its regular market at Coolum Beach. Check its calendar, because there is no fallback date.

Planning a Sunshine Coast weekend

Saturday: Eumundi at 7:30am, Yandina on the way back, or the range if it is the second or third Saturday. Sunday: Noosa for breakfast or one of the Maroochydore pair, then the beach. If you are only here midweek, make it Eumundi on Wednesday.

Every market here is in the Sunshine Coast markets directory with its next trading date, and markets this weekend shows what's on now. The markets worth planning a trip around guide has the hinterland alongside the country's other market destinations.