Sunday Markets Maddington

The Rotary Club of Southern Districts has been running its bring-and-buy market in the Maddington shopping centre car park since at least 1980, which the club's own market history documents. It trades every Sunday of the year except when Christmas Day or New Year's Day lands on a Sunday, and it starts at an hour most markets have not thought about: 5am.

A car park, a car boot and a five o'clock start

The format is second-hand and unpretentious. Sellers pay for marked bays, park the car in the bay and sell out of the back of it, which means the stock turns over completely week to week and nothing is curated. Household goods, tools, toys, clothing, books and the general contents of Perth garages all pass through. The early start is a genuine part of the culture here rather than an administrative quirk: dealers and serious hunters arrive in the dark with torches, and the best material is usually gone before the sun is properly up.

The entry fee is the other thing that sets this market apart from a free-to-enter craft market, and it is the reason the whole operation exists. Shoppers pay $2 at the gate, concessions $1, children under 12 pay 50c and under fives are free, with a $4 family pass. Every dollar goes to the Rotary Club of Southern Districts, which puts it into youth scholarships, local community projects and international programs.

Good to know before you go

Bring cash and bring it in small notes and coins, since this is a gate-fee market with private sellers rather than a card-terminal one. Set the alarm properly: by 9am the market is winding down and by 10am it is over, so a mid-morning arrival misses it entirely. Take a torch in winter, wear shoes you do not mind on wet bitumen, and carry your own bags, because nobody here is handing them out.