Our story — Meet Rachael
I spent eleven years as a structural engineer in Perth, mostly working on industrial fit-outs in the Pilbara. The job was about tolerances, load paths, and making sure the thing you built did not fail quietly six months later. When I moved to Goolwa in 2019 to be closer to my mum, I thought I was done with all of that. I started making stationery and desk accessories as a way to keep my hands busy. What I did not expect was that the same thinking I used on steel connections would completely take over how I approached a leather journal cover or a paper notebook. The tolerances just got smaller.
Before Harlow Quill existed as anything official, I was buying notebooks from three different suppliers and none of them held up. The paper would feather with a gel pen, the covers would warp after a few weeks on a desk, and the binding would start to crack by page forty. I kept a running list of every failure point. By mid-2020 I had seventeen items on that list and I had started sourcing paper directly from a mill in Tumut, NSW, because their 90gsm stock was the first I had tested that did not feather on the back of a stroke. That decision, driving to Tumut and ordering a 40-kilogram trial pallet, was the moment I stopped treating this as a hobby.
I registered the business in January 2021 and set up a small workshop in a shed behind the house in Goolwa. The first six months were mostly jig-building. I built a cutting jig for consistent cover sizing, a stitching clamp out of jarrah offcuts from a local timber yard on Cadell Street, and a drying rack that held twelve pieces flat without warping. The first proper product run was 60 notebooks and I sold all of them at the Port Elliot Farmers Market in March 2021, mostly to people who asked if I had more. That was enough of an answer. I ordered another 120 kilograms of paper from Tumut the following week.
Harlow Quill now ships to every state and territory, mostly to independent bookshops, gift stores, and direct customers who find us online. The workshop is still in Goolwa. I have added a vacuum press and a proper humidity-controlled drying room, which sounds fancier than it is. It is basically a converted bathroom with a dehumidifier and a data logger. Everything still goes through the same checklist I built in 2020. If something fails the checklist, it does not ship. That part has not changed.
— Built to last longer than the to-do list inside it. — Rachael, Rachael Louise Wheeler
Journal
Why it took eight months to find our leather supplier
I drove four hours to a tannery outside Naracoorte and left with nothing but a notebook full of questions I should have asked sooner.
When I first decided the Kangaroo Leather Journal needed to be exactly that, actual kangaroo leather and not some vague 'natural hide', I assumed finding a tannery would take a few emails and maybe two weeks. That was February 2023. By the following October I had visited three facilities, rejected two sets of samples, and developed a strong opinion about the difference between wet-blue and vegetable-tanned kangaroo hide that I never expected to hold. The short version: wet-blue is cheaper, smells faintly chemical forever, and takes a crease in a way I don't like. The longer version involves a spreadsheet with 14 columns.
The tannery I eventually settled on is a small operation about 45 minutes south of Naracoorte in the lower South East of SA. The owner, a third-generation leather worker named Grant, does a vegetable tan using wattle bark extract sourced from within the state. When I called him the first time I asked about his minimum order quantity. He said 12 hides and then paused and said 'but ring me back in a fortnight, I've got a run finishing'. I rang back in a fortnight. That's basically how the relationship started.
What I didn't understand before I started this process is that kangaroo leather has a grain structure that's genuinely different from cattle hide. The fibres run more parallel to the surface, which means it's lighter for its thickness but it also means you have to be careful about where on the hide you cut your journal covers. The shoulder and belly sections behave differently under a bone folder. I spent about three weeks just mapping that out across a set of 6 test hides, marking zones with chalk and folding samples to failure point.
The journal covers I sell now are all cut from the back and rump sections of the hide, which give the most consistent response when you're scoring a fold line. I built a simple plywood cutting jig so the pieces come out at exactly 215 x 155 mm every time, because even 2 mm of variation changes how the cover sits against the spine after binding. Grant now sets aside the back sections from each run for me, which means I'm not buying the whole hide but I'm also paying a bit more per square decimetre. That seems fair.
I'm still working through the implications of scaling this. Right now I get through roughly 18 hides a quarter, which sounds like a lot until you account for the offcuts I keep for smaller goods. The Platypus Pencil Case was basically born from the offcuts problem. Nothing about that was planned.
How I actually use the Koala Dreams Notepad every day
It is a bit odd writing a post about how to use a product I make, but people keep asking and the answer is more specific than I expected.
The question I get most often at the Goolwa market, usually while someone is flipping through the Koala Dreams Notepad, is 'what's it best for?' My instinct is always to say 'whatever you need' which is true but also useless. So here is the actual honest answer based on how I use mine, and how a few customers have told me they use theirs. The notepad has 60 pages of 100gsm off-white stock, a header section at the top of each page, and a ruled lower half. That structure was not random. I designed it to solve a specific problem I had with loose task lists.
The problem was that I kept writing tasks without any context about when I wrote them or what project they belonged to. Three weeks later I'd find a page that just said 'check tolerance on spine jig' and have no idea if I'd done it or why it mattered anymore. The header section on the Koala Dreams Notepad forces me to write a date and a project name before I write anything else. That's it. That's the whole system. But it means every page is self-contained and I can tear it out and file it without losing context.
I use one page per work session, not per day. Some days I fill three pages. Some days I don't open it. The ruled lines in the lower half are 7 mm apart, which is the spacing I find most comfortable for my own handwriting when I'm writing quickly. I tested 6 mm and 8 mm on myself and about 11 other people before settling on 7 mm. Six millimetres made people write smaller and slower. Eight millimetres wasted space. Seven was the boring correct answer.
A few customers have told me they use the header section for a 'brain dump' topic and then use the ruled section for the actual list. One woman who runs a small ceramics studio in Victor Harbor said she writes the firing temperature and clay body at the top and uses the lower section to log what went into each kiln load. That had not occurred to me when I designed it and I found it genuinely satisfying to hear. The notepad is A5, sits flat when open without any spine curl, and that flatness is something I spent a disproportionate amount of time getting right.
The binding is a double-loop wire so the pages fold back completely. I tested three different wire gauges before landing on the current one because a wire that's too thin starts to deform after about 200 open-close cycles, which sounds like a lot until you're using it every day for two months. The current gauge holds its shape past 600 cycles in my testing, which is probably more than a year of normal use.
Getting the eucalyptus scent right took longer than the pen itself
The pen body was sorted in about six weeks; the scent component took another four months and involved more chemistry than I was prepared for.
I should say upfront that I don't manufacture the pen mechanism. The gel refill, the clip, the barrel tolerances, all of that comes from a supplier I work with who does small-batch custom pen production. What I do is the scent integration and the finishing, and that part turned out to be genuinely difficult in a way I didn't anticipate. The original idea was simple: a gel pen that smells faintly of eucalyptus when you uncap it. Australian stationery that actually smells like Australia. It sounded straightforward. It was not straightforward.
The first problem is that eucalyptus essential oil, specifically the cineole-dominant oil from Eucalyptus globulus which is the most common commercial variety grown in SA and Victoria, is quite aggressive toward plastics. I went through four barrel material options before finding one that didn't show surface crazing after six weeks of contact with even a diluted oil solution. The one that works is an ABS blend with a specific additive package, and I had to get that confirmed in writing from the supplier because I wasn't willing to find out in 18 months that every pen I'd sold had a cracking problem.
The second problem is scent longevity. Essential oil just sitting in a barrel dissipates too fast. Within 10 days of production the scent was barely detectable. I ended up working with a small fragrance formulation business in Adelaide who do a lot of work for the cosmetics industry. They helped me develop a version where the eucalyptus note is carried in a porous polymer bead that sits inside the cap. When you put the cap on, the bead is in the airspace above the nib. When you uncap, you get a small release. It's a reasonable approximation of what I originally wanted.
The polymer bead took four rounds of prototyping and the minimum viable batch from the Adelaide supplier was 5,000 units, which felt like a significant commitment for something I hadn't yet sold a single unit of. I did the maths on how long it would take to move 5,000 pens at Goolwa market rates and nearly didn't proceed. What changed my mind was showing the prototype to 12 people at the Fleurieu Farmers Market in October 2023 and having 9 of them ask where they could buy it immediately. That felt like sufficient signal.
The pens now have a scent life of roughly 8 to 10 months from production date before the bead is essentially spent. I print the production month on the inner packaging so people know roughly what to expect. I've thought about a replaceable cap insert but the tolerance requirements for a reliable snap-fit at that scale are annoying and I haven't solved it yet.
What the slow season in Goolwa actually looks like for me
June through August the market foot traffic drops by about half and I stop pretending that's a problem to fix.
Goolwa in winter is genuinely quiet. The Coorong pulls in some birdwatchers and the Murray mouth does its thing regardless of season, but the tourist foot traffic that fills the main street in January is gone by June and it doesn't really come back until the school holidays in July, briefly, and then not properly until October. My first winter here I panicked about it. I ran a discount campaign, I posted more on Instagram, I drove up to the Adelaide Central Market on a Saturday to see if that helped. It helped a little. Mostly it was just tiring.
The second winter I decided to treat it as a development period and stopped fighting the slowdown. The Platypus Pencil Case was designed in July 2024. The revised binding jig for the Kangaroo Leather Journal, the one that holds the spine block square to within 0.5 mm, I built that in August. I also redid all my product photography in the back garden on a cold overcast morning in July because the flat light that comes off the Southern Ocean cloud cover is actually really good for paper products. No harsh shadows. I've never had better photos.
I also use the slow months to sort out the supplier conversations that I keep deferring when I'm busy. The wattle bark tannery in the lower South East, I try to visit once in winter to talk through the next year's requirements in person. Grant is not an email person. He will respond to texts with single words and that's fine, but the useful conversations happen over a cup of tea in his shed where he can show me what's in the current run and I can tell him what I need. We sorted out a new cut specification for the journal covers in August last year in about 20 minutes that way.
There's a version of running a small stationery business where winter is just lost revenue and you spend three months feeling behind. I've been that version. It's not useful. The version I'm working toward is one where the slow season is when the next 12 months get built properly, where I'm testing paper weights and refining jigs and having the conversations that are too easy to skip when the market is busy and the orders are coming in and everything feels urgent.
This winter I'm planning to finally sort the replaceable cap insert for the Eucalyptus Scented Gel Pens. I've been saying that for two seasons. I have a tolerance spec I think will work and I've found a local machinist in Murray Bridge who does small prototype runs. Whether it actually happens or I find another reason to defer it, I'll probably write about either way.
Customer reviews
Megan T. — Fitzroy, VIC — 2024-03-14 — 5/5
Exactly what I was after
Ordered the Koala Dreams Notepad on a Tuesday and it was at my door by Thursday, which I wasn't expecting at all for a small SA business. The paper quality is genuinely good — my felt-tip pens don't bleed through. Already bought a second one as a gift for a colleague.
James R. — Surry Hills, NSW — 2024-05-22 — 4/5
Great journal, shipping was slower than expected
The Kangaroo Leather Journal is a really solid product — the leather feels substantial and the binding is tight. Shipping took about nine days to Sydney, which was a bit longer than the estimate, but the packaging was good and nothing was damaged. Would order again.
Priya S. — New Farm, QLD — 2024-07-08 — 5/5
Best desk organiser I've found
I'd been looking for a desk organiser that didn't look plasticky and cheap, and the Sydney Harbour Desk Organizer is genuinely well made. It holds more than it looks like it should. Arrived well-packaged with no movement inside the box.
Sophie W. — Brunswick, VIC — 2024-09-03 — 4/5
Lovely pens, scent is subtle
The Eucalyptus Scented Gel Pens write really smoothly and the scent is there but not overpowering, which I appreciated. One of the four pens in the set had a slightly scratchy tip, but I emailed Harlow Quill and they sent a replacement without any fuss.
Callum B. — Fremantle, WA — 2024-11-19 — 5/5
Gift was a hit
Bought the Platypus Pencil Case for my daughter's birthday and added the gift wrap option. It arrived looking really neat — the wax seal was a nice touch and she loved it immediately. Fast delivery to WA too, which can be hit or miss with smaller retailers.
Natasha P. — Hobart, TAS — 2025-01-27 — 5/5
Quality stationery that actually lasts
I've been using the Kangaroo Leather Journal daily for about three months now and the cover still looks the same as when it arrived. The pages are a good weight and I've had no issues with ink spreading. Really pleased I spent the extra money on this one.
Daniel M. — West End, QLD — 2025-03-05 — 4/5
Solid notepad, would buy again
The Koala Dreams Notepad is a good size for keeping on my desk — not too big, not too small. Paper takes ballpoint and gel pens well. My only minor gripe is that the cardboard backing could be a touch firmer, but it's still perfectly usable.
Claire H. — Norwood, SA — 2025-04-11 — 5/5
Fast local shipping and great product
Being in SA, my order from Goolwa arrived the next business day, which was brilliant. The Platypus Pencil Case is a generous size — fits my full set of markers without straining the zip. The material feels durable and it's held up well after two months of daily use.
Shipping
All Harlow Quill orders ship from our workshop in Goolwa, South Australia. Standard orders go out via Australia Post and typically arrive within 3–8 business days — metro areas like Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth tend to land at the lower end of that range, while regional and rural addresses can take a little longer. Express orders are handled by StarTrack and generally arrive within 1–3 business days. Orders placed before 2pm AEST Monday to Friday are dispatched the same day. After that, they go out the next business day. You'll receive a tracking number by email as soon as your parcel is on its way.
Standard shipping is free on all orders over $75. For orders under that amount, standard shipping is a flat $8.95 Australia-wide. Express shipping is available at checkout for a flat $14.95 regardless of order size or destination. All prices shown on our website include GST — there are no surprise charges at checkout. We ship to all Australian states and territories, including NT and remote postcodes, though please allow extra time for those areas and note that StarTrack express coverage may be limited in some remote locations, in which case we'll use the fastest available Australia Post service.
We pack every order carefully to make sure it arrives in the same condition it left our workshop. Notepads, pens, and pencil cases are wrapped in tissue and placed in a sturdy cardboard mailer. Larger items like the desk organiser and leather journal are boxed with internal padding to prevent movement in transit. If your order arrives damaged, take a photo of the packaging and the item before opening it further, then email us at hello@harlowquill.com.au with your order number and photos. We'll arrange a replacement or refund promptly and handle any claim with the carrier on your behalf.
Returns
If you're not happy with your order, you can return it within 30 days of the delivery date. To be eligible for a return, the item needs to be unused and in its original packaging, and you'll need to provide proof of purchase — your order confirmation email is fine. To start a return, email hello@harlowquill.com.au with your order number and the reason for the return, and we'll reply within one business day with instructions. For change-of-mind returns, return postage is at your cost. We recommend using a tracked service, as we can't take responsibility for parcels lost on their way back to us.
Your rights under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) apply to every purchase from Harlow Quill. If a product arrives faulty, is not as described, or doesn't do what it's supposed to do, you're entitled to a repair, replacement, or refund — and in those cases we'll cover the return postage in full. Please don't return a faulty item before contacting us, as we may be able to resolve the issue without you needing to send anything back. For significant failures, you have the right to choose between a replacement and a refund. For minor issues, we'll offer a repair or replacement first, but we'll always aim to find the solution that works best for you.
Once we receive and inspect your return, we'll process your refund within 5 business days. Refunds go back to your original payment method — credit card refunds may take an additional 3–5 business days to appear on your statement depending on your bank. Custom and personalised orders are not eligible for change-of-mind returns, and neither are items marked as final sale at the time of purchase. These exclusions don't affect your rights under the ACL — if a custom item is faulty or not as described, we'll still make it right. If you have any questions about whether your item qualifies, just email us before sending anything back.