Next door to the Council’s recycling centre in Dunsmore Road is the Lions Club’s weekend used-furniture market, affectionately known by many islanders as Steptoe’s Emporium.

Back in the 1970s the Lions Club of Phillip Island operated this yard as a bottle and can recycling centre. For the last few decades it’s been a weekend market for used furniture, bric-a-brac and even some building materials.

Generations of islanders have donated their pre-loved furniture and other items to the Lions for sale. It’s a win-win situation.

Donors are relieved of the need to dispose of pre-loved furniture that no longer fits, nor meets the needs of revised living arrangements. Purchasers can give items a new lease of life. No need to send stuff to landfill!

It’s also good to see items re-purposed. Kitchen or bathroom tiles can be turned into mosaics for garden paths or works of art, second hand roof sheeting to line chicken coops, old windows become glasshouses for seedlings, used tools always find lots of odd uses, as do used decking timbers.

There are lots of collectibles for sale as well, from crockery to CDs, 78rpm records, paintings to framed art photos.

Pickups and deliveries can usually be arranged, Saturday and Sunday mornings only. Deliveries incur a small charge.

Lions drivers, Sam, John, Dave or Rick can get to most locations on the island with their updated truck, purchased recently with the aid of a Bendigo Bank grant.

All the proceeds from the weekend market go towards funding the Lions Club of Phillip Island community service projects. These include contributing to the school breakfast program at Cowes Primary, sponsoring some students to the Lions’ Licola adventure camp and vouchers to help school families in need.

Outside of school, Lions have funded local church-run community meals, purchased equipment for the Cowes Senior Citizens Hall, sponsored the Island Harmony choir, and given equipment and supplies to the PICAL pantry.

Money raised from furniture sales has also gone to disaster relief, helping victims of Victorian and interstate floods and fires, to medical research, Bass Coast Health, the RCH Good Friday Appeal, the

Royal Flying Doctor Service and charities such as Headspace Gippsland and Children off the Streets.

The Lions Steptoe’s Emporium is open weekend mornings from 9.30am – 12.30pm on Saturday and 12pm on Sunday. Phone: 0433 191 654 (text messages preferred).

If anyone would like to put in a few interesting hours helping to display and prepare for sale donated items, the friendly and generous bunch of Lions at Steptoe’s would welcome new volunteers.