Wild Harvest Seafood Festival, Mallacoota: What It Is and When

The Wild Harvest Seafood Festival is Mallacoota's seafood festival. It has black-lip abalone, oysters, mussels and sea urchin from local divers, a market, inlet cruises, fishing workshops and kids' activities. The most recent one ran 25 to 27 September 2026, and the next date hasn't been announced yet.

The next Wild Harvest date hasn't been announced. Check the festival's own site, wildharvestseafoodfestival.com, before you plan a trip around it.

For a sense of timing, these are the recent festivals:

They haven't fallen in the same month, so don't assume a season. Wait for the announcement.

Mallacoota is best known for dusky flathead and for black and yellowfin bream. There are also tailor, Australian salmon, luderick, trevally, estuary perch and mulloway in the water, and offshore there are snapper, gummy shark and kingfish. Flathead fire in the warmer months, roughly November to April, and bream are caught year-round.

You don't need the festival to eat local seafood. Our Mallacoota restaurant guide has the full list, but for seafood these are the places to start:

• Scallywags Restaurant & Bar, 14 Allan Drive: a waterfront seafood restaurant on the inlet serving fresh locally caught fish and chips. It takes bookings online, or ring 03 4110 2059.
• Mallacoota Hotel Motel, 51–55 Maurice Avenue: the Family Bistro serves seafood, seven days for lunch and dinner, and the pub does sit-down fish and chips. Phone 03 5158 0455.
• Cafe 54, 54 Maurice Avenue: does fish and chips, and is open year-round, seven days. Phone 03 5158 0646.

Lee's Takeaway has closed. For fish and chips, go to one of the three above.

The other way to eat Mallacoota seafood is to catch it. You need a Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence for fresh and saltwater fishing, which you can buy online, and under-18s are among the exemptions. Kids can fish off the jetties and the Main Wharf, in sheltered water with no boat needed, and the Main Wharf has fish-cleaning tables for the catch. There's more in our guide to fishing in Mallacoota and our guide to fishing charters.

If a competition is more your thing, the Daiwa Mallacoota Flatty Classic is a three-day flathead fishing competition based at Scallywags. The 2026 event runs 23 to 25 October and has sold out. Details are at fishingclassics.com.au.

The Mallacoota Artisans and Produce Market runs on the first Saturday of the month, 8am to 12pm, at Lions Park and the Mudbrick Pavilion. It doesn't run in January or at Easter, but community markets run every Saturday through the summer school holidays, and at Easter. For cruises, Mallacoota Cruises runs lake cruises, scenic cruises and eco tours aboard the M.V. Loch-Ard. There's more in our guide to what's on in Mallacoota over summer.