Terrigal Wamberal Lions Car Boot Market

Car boot markets run on a different clock to everything else. This one opens at 6:30am on the first Sunday of the month at Terrigal Lagoon Reserve, and by the time a normal market would be setting up, the serious buying here is finished. The stalls are boots and folding tables, the stock changes completely every month, and nobody is precious about presentation.

Second-hand, first thing, beside the lagoon

The reserve sits on the corner of Terrigal Drive and Willoughby Road with the lagoon on one side, which makes it one of the better looking car parks on the Central Coast to spend a Sunday morning in. What is being sold is whatever people have cleared out: tools, books, records, kitchenware, kids' gear, plants, bric-a-brac and the occasional genuinely good piece of furniture. The turnover is what makes it worth coming back to. Unlike a craft market, where the same makers bring broadly the same range each time, a car boot market is a completely new set of stock every first Sunday.

The market is the Terrigal Wamberal Lions Club's major fundraiser, which changes how you should think about the $25 site fee. It is not a commercial pitch rate. It is the mechanism by which a morning of people selling off their garages turns into money for local projects, and it is low enough that a household with one carload of things to clear can justify booking a site for a single month.

Good to know before you go

Bring cash. Car boot sellers are private individuals clearing out their homes, not registered traders, and card facilities are the exception rather than the rule. Bring bags or a box too, because nothing here comes wrapped. Get there in the first hour if you are hunting rather than browsing. Parking is around the reserve and along Terrigal Drive, and it fills up, so the early start helps in more ways than one. If you want to sell, book a site with the club rather than turning up on the day. This is Darkinjung country.