Cotton Tree Markets

The Cotton Tree Markets run every Sunday morning on King Street, across the road from Cotton Tree Beach where the Maroochy River meets the sea. What sets them apart from the rest of the Sunshine Coast circuit is who runs them: Bloomhill Cancer Care curates and administers the market, so it functions as a charity's community activity rather than an operator's weekly booking.

Sunday morning by the river mouth

The market trades 7am to 12pm with a spread of fresh local produce and vendor stalls, and the location does a lot of the rest. Cotton Tree sits at the river mouth with the caravan park, the beach and the restaurant strip in walking distance, so the market catches holidaymakers, campers and locals in about equal measure. A weekly cadence in a heavily visited coastal town is a different proposition from a monthly one: the market has to sustain stallholders across a season that swings hard between school holidays and quiet weeks, and it does that by staying a habit for the people who live there.

Maroochydore carries two Sunday morning markets at different addresses, so it is worth naming the one you want. This is the Cotton Tree one, on King Street by the beach. The other trades at Fishermans Road.

Worth knowing before Sunday

Weekly, 7am to 12pm, and 7am is not decorative: this is a morning market and the good produce moves in the first two hours. Bring bags and a mix of cash and card. Parking around Cotton Tree fills quickly in school holidays, so arriving early solves two problems. There is very little shade on parts of the site and the Sunshine Coast sun is serious by nine, so a hat is worth having. The beach and the river mouth are right there if the morning turns into a longer stop. This is Kabi Kabi country.