Our story — Meet Adam
I grew up in Chengdu, moved to Melbourne in 2009 to finish an accounting degree at Monash, and spent the next decade doing books for other people's businesses. My partner Renee grew up in Orange, studied textile design at TAFE Bathurst, and was working for a homewares wholesaler in Pyrmont when we met at a Sunday market in Newtown around 2014. She was selling small-batch linen pieces she made on weekends. I bought one, we got talking, and that was more or less it. We were living in two different cities for about eighteen months before she moved down to Melbourne and we figured out what we actually wanted to do together.
Before Ferndale Co existed, Renee was designing for a mid-size importer that sourced almost everything from overseas and relabelled it. She knew what good Australian materials looked like and it frustrated her that the company kept passing on them. I was running the accounts for a logistics firm in Port Melbourne, which sounds boring but it meant I understood margins, freight costs, and what it actually takes to move product around a country as big as this one. Neither of us had run a retail business. What we had was one person who could design and source, and one person who could read a spreadsheet without flinching.
We moved to Geelong in late 2021, partly because rent was half what we were paying in Fitzroy and partly because a contact of Renee's had workshop space going in the Newtown precinct near the old wool stores. We started with around $18,000 of our own savings, no investors, no grants. The first real decision was whether to keep our day jobs while we tested the idea or go all in. We both quit in March 2022. That was the actual moment. We had six months of runway and a small storage unit on Latrobe Terrace. Everything since has come from that call.
We are still in Geelong. The workshop is bigger now, we have three people helping us, and we ship to every state. Most of our materials come from regional suppliers we have visited in person, including a wool processor outside Goulburn and a cotton mill contact in the Hunter Valley. Renee handles design and supplier relationships. I handle the numbers, logistics, and anything involving a spreadsheet or a freight quote. We sell online and through a handful of independent stores in Victoria and New South Wales. It is still the two of us making most of the calls.
— Still based in Geelong, still figuring it out. — Adam, Adam Yao Guo Chen
Journal
How we finally found a leather tanner we trusted
After eight months of dead ends, we drove to a small tannery outside Ballarat and shook hands on a deal that actually made sense.
When Mei and I first started talking seriously about a kangaroo leather wallet, I assumed sourcing the hide would be the straightforward part. It was not. We spent the better part of eight months going back and forth with three different suppliers, two of whom couldn't tell us much beyond 'it comes from Queensland.' That wasn't good enough. Kangaroo leather is genuinely one of the strongest hides for its weight, roughly 10 times the tensile strength of cowhide at the same thickness, and if we were going to put our name on a wallet, we needed to know the full picture of where it came from.
The tannery we eventually landed on is a family operation about 45 minutes north-west of Ballarat, near Creswick. They've been processing Australian hides since the late 1980s, and when we visited in February, the owner spent nearly two hours walking us through every stage. He knew the name of the harvester he used in the Riverina. That level of specificity was what we were looking for. Mei, who handles most of our supplier relationships, said afterwards it was the first time she felt like she was talking to someone who actually cared how the material ended up.
The hide we settled on is a mid-weight kangaroo leather that takes a natural tan finish well. It doesn't have the plasticky sheen you see on a lot of wallets at that price point. It develops a patina over time, which is honestly the thing I find most satisfying about it. I've been carrying a test wallet since late January and the edges have already started to soften in a way that feels like it has a history. My old cowhide wallet never did that, even after four years.
One thing I want to be upfront about: kangaroo harvesting is a regulated industry in Australia, and there is genuine public debate around it. We read the National Code of Practice before we committed to anything. We're not going to pretend that's a simple conversation or that buying one of our wallets resolves it. What we can say is that the hides we use come from a licensed commercial harvest under that code, and we chose a tanner who could document that chain clearly. We'd rather say that plainly than dress it up.
The first production run was 60 wallets. We deliberately kept the number low because we wanted to see how they held up and whether customers had any feedback on the fit and stitching before we scaled. So far, three months in, nobody has complained about the stitching. One person said the card slots were tight at first, which is accurate, but they loosen up with use. That's the kangaroo leather doing what it's supposed to do.
Getting real use out of a merino blanket through winter
We've been living with the merino blanket since May and I want to write down what actually works and what I wish we'd done differently.
Geelong winters are not dramatic. They're not the kind of cold that makes good stories. They're just persistently grey and damp from about May through to late August, with overnight temperatures that sit somewhere between 4 and 9 degrees most nights. It's the kind of cold that gets into the house slowly and stays. We moved here from Melbourne three years ago and I still haven't fully adjusted to the way the wind comes off Corio Bay in July. The merino blanket has spent most of this winter on the couch, which is where it was always going to end up.
The wool in our blanket is a Merino crossbred fleece from a property in the Western Districts, near Skipton. The micron count sits around 19 to 20, which puts it in the fine-to-medium range. It's soft enough to put against your neck without irritating it, but it has enough body to hold its shape after washing. That balance took us a while to get right. Our first sample came back from the mill too loosely woven and it stretched out of shape after two uses. We went back and tightened the weave, which added about three weeks to the timeline.
A few things I've figured out from actually using it every day. First, it does not need to be washed as often as you think. We've washed ours twice since May, both times on the wool cycle in cold water, laid flat to dry on the back verandah. It came out fine both times, no felting, no shrinkage to speak of. Second, if you fold it loosely rather than compressing it, it holds its loft better when you unfold it. Sounds obvious but I was folding it flat for the first month and wondering why it felt thinner than expected.
The one thing I'd change if we were starting again is the dimensions. Our current blanket is 140 by 180 centimetres, which is comfortable for one person on a couch but slightly awkward for two. We've talked about doing a larger version at 160 by 210, and I think we probably will next year. Mei pointed out that the larger size would also work better as a bed throw, which is how a lot of people seem to be using it based on the messages we get. She's usually right about these things.
I'm writing this on a Tuesday night in late July with the blanket across my lap and the heater off, which tells you most of what you need to know about whether it works. Outside it's about 6 degrees. The cat has claimed one corner of it, which I take as a reasonable endorsement.
What it actually takes to get a scent right
We went through 14 test batches before we had a candle that smelled like actual Australian bush and not a cleaning product.
Mei's background is in graphic design and mine is in logistics and operations, which means neither of us had any business developing a candle fragrance. But we wanted a candle that smelled like the bush around the You Yangs on a warm afternoon, specifically that combination of eucalyptus, dry grass, and something faintly woody underneath. Every candle we could find that claimed to do this either smelled like a eucalyptus lolly or like a hotel bathroom. We figured we'd try to do it ourselves, which turned out to be more complicated than either of us anticipated.
We worked with a fragrance house in Melbourne's inner north, a small operation that does custom blending for a handful of independent brands. The process started with us describing what we were after in embarrassingly vague terms, 'the Otway Ranges in February' being an actual note I gave them at the first meeting. To their credit, they translated that into something workable. The base we landed on uses a combination of blue gum eucalyptus, a dry amber note, and a very small amount of wattle absolute. The wattle is the expensive part. It makes up less than 4 percent of the fragrance load but it's what stops it smelling synthetic.
Fourteen test batches sounds like a lot, and it was. Most of the early failures were about throw, the amount of scent you get when the candle is burning versus cold. We were using a coconut-soy wax blend and the fragrance kept behaving differently at different temperatures. Batch seven smelled genuinely good cold but almost nothing when burning. Batch eleven was the reverse. The fragrance house adjusted the load percentage twice and we eventually landed at 9 percent, which is on the higher end for this wax type but it works consistently.
The vessels are a straight-sided glass jar we source from a supplier in Brisbane. We looked at Australian-made glass but the minimum order quantities were beyond what we could commit to at this stage, so that's a compromise we made knowingly. The wick is a cotton-paper blend and we trim them to 5 millimetres before shipping because if you don't, the first burn tends to mushroom and people assume the candle is faulty. We include a small card explaining wick trimming, though I'm not confident most people read it.
The whole development process from first conversation to first production run took about seven months. That's longer than I expected. A lot of that time was waiting, waiting for test batches, waiting for wax shipments, waiting for our fragrance house to have a slot. Mei handled most of the back and forth during that period. I was doing the logistics and operations side, which in practice meant setting up a spreadsheet and feeling useful.
Testing the beach towel through a proper Geelong summer
We spent most of January at Torquay and Anglesea with the Bondi towels, which turned out to be useful product research and also just a good summer.
January in Geelong is genuinely hot. Not Sydney-humid hot, but dry and bright in a way that makes the coast feel worth the effort. We spent three long weekends down the Surf Coast this summer, mostly between Torquay and Anglesea, and we brought the towels every time. I want to be honest that this was partly research and partly just that we needed towels and ours were already packed. By the end of the month we had a pretty clear picture of what the towel does well and what we'd look at changing.
The towel is a Turkish cotton weave, 90 by 170 centimetres, and the thing it does best is dry quickly. We timed it once on a warm day at Addiscot Beach, about 40 minutes flat-laid in the sun after a swim. That's noticeably faster than the thick terry towels we used to use, which would still feel damp on the drive home. The flat weave also means it packs down small enough to fit in the top of a tote bag, which sounds like a small thing but makes a real difference when you're trying to get two adults, a dog, and a bag of snacks out the door before 9am.
The thing we'd change is the fringe. The knotted fringe on the short ends looks good in photos and feels nice when it's new, but after five or six washes and a few sessions in the sand, it starts to tangle. We've had a handful of customers mention this and I think they're right. We're looking at a looped edge finish for the next production run, which would hold up better over a full summer of use. It's a meaningful change to the look of the product so we're going back and forth on it.
Anglesea in January is also a good reminder of how variable Australian summer light is. Some days the towel colours looked exactly as we intended, the stripe palette we developed with Mei's design contacts in Melbourne. Other days, in the harsh midday sun, they looked slightly washed out. We've noted that for the product photography, which currently makes the colours look richer than they do at the beach. That's something we want to correct before the next season, because people should know what they're actually getting.
We sold out of the blue stripe colourway by mid-January, about 85 units in six weeks, which was faster than we planned for. The sand colourway still has stock. That gap tells us something about what people want in a beach environment, though I'm cautious about reading too much into one summer. We'll run a slightly larger order of the blue stripe for next season and see if the pattern holds.
Customer reviews
Sarah M. — Surry Hills, NSW — 2024-03-14 — 5/5
Wallet is genuinely excellent
Ordered the Kangaroo Leather Wallet as a birthday gift and it arrived in four days, which was faster than I expected given I chose standard shipping. The leather feels solid and the card slots are firm without being stiff. My partner uses it every day and it's already developing a nice patina.
Tom B. — Brunswick, VIC — 2024-06-02 — 4/5
Great blanket, sizing note
The Merino Wool Blanket is thick and warm — exactly what I wanted for winter on the couch. It's a generous size but if you want it to cover a queen bed fully, it's more of a throw. That said, the quality is well worth the price and it washed without any shrinkage.
Priya K. — New Farm, QLD — 2024-08-19 — 5/5
Candle smell is spot on
Bought the Bushland Scented Candle after seeing it mentioned on a local gift guide. The scent is strong but not overwhelming — it fills a medium room easily without becoming headache-inducing. Burn time seems solid too; I've had it going for several evenings and it's barely reduced.
James R. — Cottesloe, WA — 2024-09-07 — 4/5
Picnic set does the job well
The Outback Picnic Set arrived well packaged and everything was intact. The carry case is a bit bulkier than I imagined from the photos, but once we got it out to the beach it was clearly well thought out. Would buy again for a gift.
Chloe W. — Fitzroy, VIC — 2024-11-22 — 5/5
Bondi towel is a keeper
I ordered two Bondi Beach Towels before a summer trip and they've held up through multiple washes without fading or going thin. They dry fast and don't take up much room in a bag. Much better than the towels I've bought from bigger retailers at twice the price.
Marcus T. — Hobart, TAS — 2025-01-10 — 4/5
Solid wallet, slight delay to TAS
The Kangaroo Leather Wallet is well made and slimmer than I expected — fits in a front pocket easily. Standard delivery took seven business days to reach Hobart, which is fair enough. The card stitching looks clean and I haven't had any issues with it after two months of daily use.
Nina F. — Glenelg, SA — 2025-02-28 — 5/5
Great gift, quick turnaround
Ordered the Bushland Scented Candle with gift wrapping for a housewarming and the presentation was genuinely nice — the kraft paper wrap and handwritten card made it feel considered without being over the top. Arrived in three days on standard post. The recipient loved it.
Lena O. — West End, QLD — 2025-04-03 — 5/5
Merino blanket worth every cent
I was hesitant about the price but the Aussie Merino Wool Blanket is genuinely warm and doesn't shed like cheaper wool products I've tried. Followed the care instructions and it came out of the wash perfectly. I've already recommended it to two friends.
Shipping
All Ferndale Co orders are dispatched from our workshop in Geelong, VIC. Standard orders ship via Australia Post and typically arrive within 3–5 business days for VIC, NSW, ACT, and SA; 4–7 business days for QLD and WA; and 5–8 business days for TAS, NT, and remote areas. Express orders are sent via StarTrack and generally arrive within 1–3 business days for metro areas. Orders placed before 2pm AEST Monday to Friday are dispatched the same day. Orders placed after that time, or on weekends and public holidays, are dispatched the next business day. Tracking details are emailed as soon as your order leaves our workshop.
Standard shipping is free on all orders over $75 (AUD, GST included). For orders under $75, a flat rate of $8.95 applies for standard shipping. Express shipping is calculated at checkout based on your location and order weight. All prices on our site include GST — there are no surprise charges added at checkout. We use recycled cardboard boxes and paper-based void fill where possible, and we avoid single-use plastic in our packaging. Fragile items like candles are wrapped with extra padding to reduce the chance of breakage in transit.
If your order arrives damaged, please take a photo of the packaging and the item before doing anything else, then email hello@ferndaleco.com.au within 48 hours of delivery. We'll work with you quickly to arrange a replacement or refund — we don't ask you to jump through hoops. For lost parcels, we'll lodge an enquiry with Australia Post or StarTrack on your behalf and keep you updated. Please make sure your delivery address is correct at checkout, as we can't redirect parcels once they've been dispatched and aren't responsible for delays caused by incorrect address details.
Returns
We want you to be happy with what you've bought. If something isn't right, you have 30 days from the date of delivery to request a return or exchange. To start a return, email hello@ferndaleco.com.au with your order number and a brief description of the issue. Items must be unused, in their original packaging, and in a resalable condition. For change-of-mind returns, return postage is at your cost. Once we receive and inspect the item, we'll process your refund or send a replacement within five business days. We recommend using a tracked postage method for returns, as we can't take responsibility for items lost on their way back to us.
Your rights under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) apply to all purchases from Ferndale Co. If a product has a major fault, is not fit for purpose, or doesn't match its description, you're entitled to a repair, replacement, or refund regardless of our standard 30-day policy. You don't need to return a faulty item in its original packaging to claim under the ACL. If you believe your item has a fault, contact us with photos and a description and we'll sort it out promptly. We won't ask you to prove the fault is our responsibility before we respond.
Some items are excluded from change-of-mind returns. Personalised or custom-made products — such as wallets with stamped initials — cannot be returned unless they are faulty. Candles that have been burned, and any items showing signs of use, damage through misuse, or improper care (for example, a wool blanket machine-washed on a hot cycle against the care instructions) are also excluded. These exclusions do not affect your rights under the ACL. Refunds are processed back to your original payment method and typically appear within 3–5 business days depending on your bank or card provider.