About
A considered home for what they've outgrown.
Paperbark Kids was born out of a shared frustration: buying a hundred baby-grows in two years, then watching them pile up in a box in the garage. We think there’s a better way, and we’re building it, carefully, in Australia.
“The paperbark tree sheds its layers year after year, and what’s underneath keeps growing.”
Why paperbark?
The tree that keeps shedding.
The Australian paperbark, melaleuca quinquenervia, is one of the most recognisable trees on the east coast. It grows near water, survives floods and fires, and every year it sheds papery layers to make room for new growth.
That image stuck with us. Children outgrow their clothes in cycles, too. Nappies give way to crawlers, crawlers give way to first shoes, first shoes give way to school uniforms. What if the stuff they outgrow could do the same thing the tree does, get passed on, make room, keep going?
That’s Paperbark Kids. A name that remembers where we come from, and a platform designed to keep kids’ things moving instead of piling up.
Our values
Six things we won’t compromise on.
Built for parents, by parents
Every design decision starts with a simple question: would this help a tired parent at 9pm on a Sunday? If not, we don’t ship it.
Clothes that keep going
The average Australian kid outgrows five full wardrobes before they’re eight. We exist to keep as much of that out of landfill as we can.
Safety is not optional
Escrowed payments, verified sellers, prepaid tracked shipping. The marketplace handles the awkward parts so parents don’t have to.
A community, not a feed
Follow favourite sellers. Shop local. See the same child’s wardrobe move to the next family. It’s a small world, and we keep it small on purpose.
AU-first, AU-only
We don’t ship internationally. We don’t dropship. Every item comes from an Australian parent, and every dollar stays in the community.
Made in Sydney
We’re a small, independent team headquartered in Sydney, NSW. No venture theatre, no dark patterns. A sustainable business we can run for a decade.
Founder note
A letter to the first thousand parents.
If you’re reading this, you’re early. Thank you.
I started Paperbark Kids because our second child arrived and I realised we had three large tubs of perfectly good clothes in the garage that we’d never wear again. They weren’t worn out. They were just outgrown. Getting rid of them felt wrong. Selling them one-by-one on Facebook felt exhausting. So we built the thing we wished existed.
Everything about this platform is deliberate. The 10% fee is the number that lets us offer real buyer protection, prepaid shipping, and proper escrow without listing fees or hidden cuts. The Australia-only rule keeps shipping fast and costs honest. The no-dropshipping rule is because this marketplace is for parents clearing out their own children’s things, not for resellers.
We’re going to grow slowly. Carefully. And we’re going to listen. If you see something we could do better, tell us.
The Paperbark Kids team, Sydney
Get involved
Be part of the first thousand.
We’re opening the platform to founding sellers first. If you’ve got a wardrobe you’re ready to clear out, or you want first dibs on the listings that go up, join the waitlist.