Tooradin Lions Community Market

Tooradin sits where the South Gippsland Highway crosses Sawtells Inlet, and the Lions Club market takes over the parkland on Memorial Island beside the bridge on the third Sunday of every month. It is a foreshore market in the literal sense: the water is right there, the tide changes the view between setup and pack-down, and the fishing boats moored at the inlet are part of the backdrop rather than a feature.

A club market with a ledger

What separates this from a commercial market is where the money ends up. The Tooradin Lions Club runs it, and the profits go into supporting people with a disability, into community greening work, and into fundraising for other causes the club takes on. That structure shows in the stall mix, which is unapologetically old-fashioned: fresh produce, craft, bric-a-brac, plants and flowers, gifts, and a sausage sizzle with hot and cold drinks. Nobody is trying to make it a food-truck event. The result is a market where you can genuinely turn up with twenty dollars and come home with something.

The twelve-dates-a-year rhythm matters if you are planning a visit. There is no summer season and no winter break, so the third Sunday works in January and in July, and the market has become a fixed point on the drive between Melbourne's south-east and the Gippsland coast.

Good to know before you go

Trading is 9am to 1pm, which is a genuinely short window, so a late arrival means a thin market. Parking is in the reserve and along the highway service area, and the site is flat grass and paths rather than sealed surface, so it can be soft after rain. Bring cash: this is a club market and card facilities vary stall to stall. The playground and the inlet walk are right alongside, which makes it an easy stop with children. Because the market runs beside a working highway, take the marked crossing rather than cutting across. Tooradin is on Bunurong country, on the northern edge of Western Port.