1770 Markets - Discovery Coast Rotary Markets at Seventeen Seventy

Seventeen Seventy is one of the few places in Australia named for a specific year rather than a person or landscape feature, marking 1770, when Lieutenant James Cook made his second landing in Queensland after Botany Bay. Volunteers from the Discovery Coast Rotary Club now run a market on the SES Grounds here on the 2nd and 4th Sunday of every month, keeping the spirit of a small coastal community event alive alongside the town's bigger tourism drawcards.

A volunteer market under the trees

The market sets up on Captain Cook Drive at the SES Grounds, trading from 8am to noon on its regular Sundays, with extra dates added on long weekends and every Sunday through school holidays. Stalls cover fresh fruit and vegetables, honey, condiments and jams, olive oil and olives, ice cream, coffee and other food, alongside crafts, soaps, candles, wood products, art, clothing, toys, pottery, seedlings and plants, all set under the shade of tall trees with live music and occasional activities for children.

Running the market through Rotary keeps it a genuinely local, volunteer-driven event rather than a commercial operation, which shows in the mix of stallholders: mostly producers, makers and craftspeople from the Discovery Coast rather than a travelling stall circuit. Any funds the market raises go back into local Rotary projects rather than to an outside promoter.

Good to know before you go

Because the schedule follows a 2nd-and-4th-Sunday pattern rather than every week, it's worth checking the calendar before planning a visit, especially outside school holidays and long weekends when extra dates get added. The Rotary group posts confirmed upcoming dates on its own website ahead of each market. The SES Grounds setting under tall trees keeps the market shaded and walkable, an easy stop alongside the wider Agnes Water and 1770 coastline.