Woy Woy Lions Club Markets
A last-Sunday car park market with a 6am start and a Lions barbecue, in a town whose name means much water.
About this market
The Woy Woy Lions Club Markets run on the last Sunday of the month from 6am to 1pm in the Dunban Road car park. That 6am start is the detail that defines the market: it is a genuine early-riser car park market of the old kind, where the serious buyers arrive in the dark and the good second-hand goods are gone before most people have had breakfast.
Pre-loved first, and a Lions barbecue
The stall list covers pre-loved items, clothing, plants, arts and crafts and new products, which is the standard mix for a service-club market and the reason people come back: the stock genuinely changes month to month. The Lions Club runs a barbecue and sells drinks alongside, which is where the money goes rather than into an operator's pocket. A seven hour window from 6am to 1pm is long by community market standards, but the shape of the day is front-loaded, so arriving at noon is a very different market from arriving at seven. Woy Woy sits on the Brisbane Water side of the Central Coast peninsula, about an hour and a half north of Sydney by train.
Market at a glance
There are two markets in Woy Woy and they are easy to confuse. This is the Lions one, in the car park on Dunban Road. The waterfront market is a different event at Brick Wharf Road down on the water.
The town's doubled name comes from the Darkinjung language and is usually recorded as meaning much water, deep water or big lagoon, which is a fair description of a settlement almost surrounded by the tidal channels of Brisbane Water. Europeans called it something far less evocative first: it was originally Webb's Flat, after James Webb, the first European settler in the Brisbane Water region in 1823. A party led by Governor Arthur Phillip had passed through the area as early as 1789.
Before you go
Last Sunday, 6am to 1pm. Come early if the second-hand stalls are the point, and bring cash, which still matters more at a car park market than anywhere else. Bags too. The Dunban Road car park is close to Woy Woy station, so the train from Sydney is a realistic way in and avoids the parking problem entirely. There is little shade in a car park, so a hat earns its place from mid-morning onwards. This is Darkinjung and Guringai country.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When are the Woy Woy Lions Club Markets on?
- The last Sunday of each month, from 6am to 1pm, at the Dunban Road car park in Woy Woy.
- What sort of stalls are there?
- Pre-loved items, clothing, plants, arts and crafts and new products, with the Lions Club running a barbecue and selling drinks.
- Is this the same as the Woy Woy Waterfront Market?
- No. The waterfront market is a separate market at Brick Wharf Road, on the water. This one is the Lions market at the Dunban Road car park.