Dapto Market

Seven in the morning is an early start for a market, and at Dapto it is not optional. Four hundred stalls of second-hand goods rewards the people who get there first, and the regulars know it. By nine the showground is full and the best of the furniture has already been carried to a ute.

A proper flea market, at scale

Dapto Showground Market has been running for more than twenty years and it has never drifted towards the artisan end. Second-hand books, antique furniture, tools, records, clothing and rows of genuine bric-a-brac make up the bulk of it, with fresh produce and plant stalls filling in the edges. If you are looking for something specific and old, this is the market in the Illawarra worth the drive.

Four hundred stalls every week is a lot of turnover, and it means the stock genuinely changes. A market this size that trades weekly rather than monthly is rare outside the big Sydney flea markets.

Good to know before you go

Cash, bags and an early alarm. A 7am start and a 1pm finish means the serious hours are before ten, and anyone arriving at noon is walking through a market being dismantled. Bring a trolley or a bag with handles if you intend to buy books or records, because the ground is long and there is no shortcut back to the car. Parking is at the showground off the Princes Highway. It is about twenty minutes south of Wollongong, which makes it an easy detour on a South Coast drive.