Our story — Meet Wedad
I moved to Eden in March 2021 with four suitcases, a lease on a weatherboard cottage two streets back from the wharf, and no real plan beyond stopping. I'd spent 24 years in Sydney working in commercial property, mostly around Pyrmont and the CBD, negotiating leases for retail tenants. I was good at it. I was also completely worn through by it. Eden is a town of about three thousand people on the far south coast of NSW, and most of my Sydney friends thought I'd lost the plot. Maybe I had. But I kept driving down on long weekends, and eventually I stopped driving back.
Before Salt Market Goods, I knew nothing about making or selling physical things. My whole career was spreadsheets, contracts, and floor plans. I understood how retail space worked but I'd never actually run a shop. What I did have, from years of site visits and supplier meetings across the country, was a decent sense of what Australian makers were producing and how badly most of them were being represented online. I also had a superannuation payout and a mortgage-free cottage, which meant I had about eighteen months to figure something out before I needed to take it seriously. That window mattered.
The actual starting point was a Saturday morning at the Bega Farmers Market in late 2021. I'd been going every fortnight and got talking to a leatherworker from Cobargo who couldn't shift stock online because his product photos were terrible and he had no idea how to write a listing. I spent a weekend helping him. His sales went up. A few weeks later a woman selling woven bags from Narooma asked if I could help her too. By February 2022 I'd helped six makers and was turning down requests. That's when I registered the business and started thinking about building something with a proper structure rather than just doing favours.
Salt Market Goods is now three years in. We work with around fourteen makers across the south coast and ship roughly 300 orders a month from the cottage, which has a proper packing bench in the second bedroom now. I still go to Bega market most fortnights. It's where I find out what's actually selling and what isn't, which is more useful than any analytics dashboard I've looked at.
— Thanks for being here. — Wedad, Wedad Yousif
Journal
How I found the right shells on a Tuesday in Merimbula
Getting the shells for the Coastal Breeze necklace took longer than I expected, and involved one very patient fisherman.
When I left Sydney after 27 years in financial services, I had this vague idea that sourcing materials for a small coastal goods business would be straightforward. You live near the ocean, you find ocean things. It is not that simple. The shells I wanted for the Coastal Breeze necklace had to meet a few non-negotiable criteria: consistent size, no bleaching or artificial whitening, and sourced from someone I could actually talk to. I spent about six weeks driving up and down the Sapphire Coast before I found what I was looking for.
A retired abalone diver named Terry runs a small operation out of Merimbula. He collects naturally beached shells along a stretch of coast between Pambula Beach and Tathra, mostly after the big southerly swells that come through in late summer. He is not a wholesaler. He does not have a website. I found him through a woman at the Eden Fishermen's Co-op who mentioned him almost as an aside. I drove out to meet him on a Tuesday, and we sat in his shed for two hours going through buckets of shells while he explained which ones hold up over time and which ones crack.
The shells Terry collects are mostly cowrie and auger varieties, and he keeps them sorted by size with a kind of precision that reminded me of the spreadsheets I used to build at work. He was suspicious of me at first, which was fair. I was a stranger from Sydney asking about shells. But once I showed him the design sketches and explained I wanted maybe 200 to 300 pieces a season, not thousands, he relaxed. He told me he had turned down two larger buyers before me because the volumes were unrealistic for what he could responsibly collect.
We agreed on a supply arrangement that suits both of us. He contacts me after each major swell event and tells me what he has. I drive up to Merimbula, which takes me about 45 minutes from Eden, and I pick through the lot myself. It means I cannot always guarantee stock levels, and I have had to put the necklace on backorder twice already. But every shell in every necklace has been through that shed, and I know exactly where it came from. That matters to me, even if it makes the business harder to run.
Terry turned 68 in February and has no interest in scaling up. Honestly, neither do I. Salt Market Goods is not built around volume. It is built around things I can stand behind, and this supply arrangement is the clearest example of that so far. When I left my old career, I told myself I wanted to do fewer things but know them properly. A retired diver in Merimbula with buckets of sorted shells turned out to be a good place to start.
What I actually do to keep my kangaroo leather wallet going
Kangaroo leather is tough but it needs a bit of attention, and most people skip one step that makes a real difference.
I carried a kangaroo leather wallet for 18 months before we started stocking them at Salt Market Goods, partly because I wanted to see how it held up and partly because I needed to be able to answer questions honestly. Kangaroo leather is genuinely different from bovine leather. It is lighter, the grain is tighter, and it does not stretch out of shape the way a full cow-hide wallet does after a year of back-pocket use. But it is also less forgiving if you ignore it. I have seen wallets from people who bought them two years ago and never conditioned them, and they look it.
The step most people skip is the initial conditioning before first use. When the wallet arrives, the leather is clean and dry and looks fine, so people put their cards straight in and get on with their lives. What I do, and what I suggest, is to apply a small amount of a lanolin-based conditioner, something like Leather Honey or a similar product available from most saddlery suppliers, and let it sit overnight before you use the wallet at all. One application, a thin coat, rubbed in with a soft cloth. That initial treatment makes a noticeable difference to how the leather ages over the following year.
After that, I condition mine roughly every 3 months, or whenever it starts to feel dry to the touch, whichever comes first. I live in Eden, which is a coastal town, and the salt air here is harder on leather than inland conditions. If you are in Perth or Hobart or somewhere with significant seasonal humidity shifts, your timing might be different. The thing to watch for is the leather losing its slight sheen and starting to look chalky at the fold lines. That is the signal that it needs attention, not a fixed calendar date.
Water is the other thing worth knowing about. Kangaroo leather handles brief contact with water reasonably well if it has been conditioned. If it gets genuinely soaked, say it goes through a wash cycle by accident, lay it flat and let it dry slowly away from direct heat. Do not put it near a heater or in the sun to speed things up. I did this once with a test wallet and the leather went stiff and the stitching pulled. It took another conditioning cycle to bring it back, and it was never quite the same.
The wallet I have been carrying since early 2023 still looks good. The edges have softened slightly and there is a patina developing around the card slots, which is what leather does when it is used properly. It started at 85 grams. I weighed it again last month and it is still 85 grams, which tells you the leather has not stretched or taken on moisture permanently. That is the thing about kangaroo leather that I find genuinely interesting. It ages but it does not give up.
Packing orders from a spare room in a Eden winter
The behind-the-scenes of running Salt Market Goods from home is less romantic than it sounds, especially when the southerlies come in.
People sometimes ask what my setup looks like, usually assuming there is a warehouse or at least a proper studio somewhere. There is not. Salt Market Goods runs out of the spare bedroom of a weatherboard house in Eden, population about 3,000, on the far south coast of New South Wales. The room is about 4 metres by 3.5 metres. One wall has a folding table for packing, one wall has shelves for stock, and the window looks out over a neighbour's ti-tree hedge. In winter, which on this part of the coast means June through August, I pack orders in a fleece and fingerless gloves because the room does not get enough sun to stay warm.
A typical week in the middle of a good sales period, say around July when the bamboo sunglasses sell well because people are heading to the snowfields, involves packing maybe 25 to 40 orders. Each one gets tissue paper, a branded card that I write by hand if it is a gift order, and a piece of recycled kraft wrap. The hats are the hardest to pack because the Outback Adventure Hat brim needs a specific box size or it arrives dented. I went through 4 different box suppliers before I found one out of Melbourne that stocks the right dimensions without a minimum order of 500.
The postage situation on the far south coast is its own topic. I drive to the Eden post office twice a week, Tuesdays and Fridays, and drop everything off at once. Australia Post to most capital cities from here runs 3 to 5 business days, which is fine. To regional Western Australia or northern Tasmania it can stretch to 8 days, and I have learned to flag that at checkout rather than let people be surprised. The post office staff know me by name now, which is a very different relationship to the one I had with, say, my office building security desk in the CBD.
The part nobody talks about in the small business content you see online is the decision fatigue. Not the big decisions, but the small constant ones. Is this necklace packaged well enough that the shell will not chip in transit? Does this wallet need an extra layer because the buyer is in Darwin and it will sit in a hot van? Should I reorder the hats now or wait until I see how November goes? I make probably 30 of these small calls a day, and by 9pm I am done. I do not miss the corporate decisions I used to make, but I did not expect to find that small-scale decisions are also genuinely tiring.
I started Salt Market Goods in February 2023 after leaving a senior role in risk management. I thought the pace would be slower. In some ways it is. In other ways, when you are the only person in the building and the building is your house, the work has a way of filling exactly as much space as you give it. The spare room helps. Having a door I can close at 9pm helps more.
Deciding what to stock as the Sapphire Coast heats up
Summer on this stretch of coast brings a particular kind of customer, and I have learned to stock for them more carefully than I did in my first year.
By mid-March the summer rush is winding down here in Eden, and I am already making notes about what to change for next year. The period between late December and late February is when Salt Market Goods does roughly 40 percent of its annual revenue, which is both useful and a little uncomfortable to know. It means I need to have the right things in stock before Christmas, and getting that wrong has consequences. In my first summer, 2023 to 2024, I ran out of bamboo sunglasses by January 8. This summer I had 60 pairs ready in November and sold through 54 of them by February.
The Sapphire Coast in summer draws two distinct kinds of visitors. There are the people staying in holiday houses around Twofold Bay and Pambula Lake who are here for 2 or 3 weeks and want something considered to take home, something that is not a tea towel or a fridge magnet. And there are the day-trippers coming through on the Princes Highway who stop for an hour and buy on impulse. The Coastal Breeze necklace sells well to the first group. The bamboo sunglasses and the hats sell to both. The kangaroo leather wallet is almost entirely an online purchase, which surprised me at first but makes sense when you think about it. People want to look at it properly before they spend $95.
This summer I tried something new and set up a small display at the Eden Visitors Centre on Imlay Street for 6 weeks. They have a consignment arrangement with local makers and I had not used it before. It was worth doing, not dramatically, but steadily. I moved 11 hats and about 20 necklaces through that arrangement between Boxing Day and the end of January. The margin is lower because of the consignment split, but the visibility was useful and I met people who had no idea Salt Market Goods existed despite living 10 minutes away.
What I am changing for next summer is the hat reorder timing. The Outback Adventure Hat comes from a maker in Broken Hill who works to a lead time of about 10 weeks. Last year I placed my reorder in October, which was fine, but I had a nervous few weeks in November waiting for confirmation. This year I will place the order in late August, which feels absurdly early when you are standing in a cold Eden morning in a fleece, but the timeline logic is sound. Being undersupplied in January is worse than having a few extra hats sitting on the shelf in September.
There is a particular quality to late March on this coast that I have come to really like. The water is still warm from summer, the holiday crowds have gone home, and the light in the evening comes in low over Twofold Bay at an angle that makes everything look a bit golden. I did not move here for the business. I moved here because I needed a different life after a long time in a city. The business came after, as a way of staying occupied and doing something I could actually hold in my hands. Two years in, that still feels like the right order of things.
Customer reviews
Priya M. — Surry Hills, NSW — 2024-03-14 — 5/5
Great wallet, quick delivery
Ordered the Kangaroo Leather Wallet on a Tuesday and it arrived by Thursday — faster than I expected for standard shipping. The leather feels solid and the card slots are tight enough to actually hold cards without them falling out. Really happy with it.
Tom B. — Cottesloe, WA — 2024-05-22 — 4/5
Hat fits well, packaging was simple
Picked up the Outback Adventure Hat for a camping trip in the Pilbara. The fit is good on my larger head — I went with L/XL based on the size guide and it was spot on. Only reason it's four stars is I'd have liked a slightly wider brim, but that's personal preference rather than a fault with the hat.
Jasmine K. — Brunswick, VIC — 2024-07-09 — 5/5
Necklace is exactly as pictured
The Coastal Breeze Shell Necklace arrived well-packaged and looked exactly like the photos on the site — no nasty surprises. I wore it to a birthday dinner the same weekend and got a few compliments. The cord feels sturdy and the clasp is easy to use.
Declan R. — New Farm, QLD — 2024-09-03 — 4/5
Bamboo sunnies — solid for the price
I was sceptical about bamboo frames but these have held up well over a few months. The lenses are clear and don't distort at the edges. The included pouch is a nice touch. They're not as adjustable as plastic frames so if you've got a narrow face, maybe check the dimensions first.
Aroha W. — Manly, NSW — 2024-11-18 — 5/5
Tote is sturdy and looks good
Bought the Seaside Woven Tote as an everyday beach bag and it's been doing the job well. It fits a towel, sunscreen, a water bottle, and still has room. The weave is tight — no loose threads after three months of regular use. Would buy from Salt Market Goods again.
Mei L. — Fitzroy, VIC — 2025-01-07 — 5/5
Good experience start to finish
Ordered the Shell Necklace as a birthday gift and used the gift wrapping option. The packaging was neat and the handwritten card was a good touch. The recipient loved it and said the necklace was lighter than she expected, in a good way — comfortable to wear all day.
Nathan S. — Glenelg, SA — 2025-02-25 — 4/5
Wallet quality is there, slight wait on dispatch
The Kangaroo Leather Wallet is well made — the stitching is clean and the leather doesn't feel cheap. My only note is that it took three business days to dispatch rather than the one or two I was expecting, though it arrived within the overall estimated window. Good product, just worth knowing if you're in a hurry.
Carla F. — West End, QLD — 2025-04-11 — 5/5
Exactly what I needed for summer
The Outback Adventure Hat is great for long days outside. I've worn it to the markets, on a bush walk, and at the beach — holds its shape well across all of them. The sizing guide on the website was accurate, which made ordering easy. Shipping to Brisbane was fast too.
Shipping
All Salt Market Goods orders are dispatched from our workshop in Eden, NSW. Standard orders are sent via Australia Post and typically arrive within 3–7 business days for metro areas across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. Regional and remote addresses — including rural WA, NT, and parts of Far North Queensland — should allow 5–10 business days. 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 where possible. You'll receive a tracking number by email as soon as your order leaves us.
Standard shipping is free on all orders over $100 AUD. Orders under $100 attract a flat $9.95 standard shipping fee. Express shipping is calculated at checkout based on weight and destination. All prices displayed on our website include GST — there are no surprise charges at checkout. We pack orders in recycled cardboard boxes or compostable mailers depending on the size of the item. We don't use excessive filler. Each order is checked before it leaves us, but if something looks off when it arrives, see the damage section below.
If your order arrives damaged in transit, please photograph the packaging and the item before doing anything else, then email us at hello@saltmarketgoods.com.au within 48 hours of delivery. We'll lodge a claim with Australia Post or StarTrack on your behalf and arrange a replacement or refund as quickly as we can. We're not able to act on damage claims reported after 48 hours of confirmed delivery, so please check your order when it arrives. For lost parcels, we'll investigate with the carrier and keep you updated throughout the process.
Returns
We accept change-of-mind returns within 30 days of the delivery date, provided the item is unused, in its original packaging, and in a resalable condition. To start a return, email hello@saltmarketgoods.com.au with your order number and reason for returning. We'll send you a return authorisation and the address to ship it back to. Return postage costs are at your expense for change-of-mind returns. We recommend using a tracked service — we can't be responsible for return parcels that don't make it back to us.
Your rights under the Australian Consumer Law are separate from our change-of-mind policy and are not limited by the 30-day window. If a product is faulty, not fit for its described purpose, or significantly different from what was shown or described on our website, you're entitled to a remedy regardless of how long you've had the item. In these cases, we'll cover return postage and offer a full refund, replacement, or repair depending on the situation. Please contact us as soon as you identify a problem and we'll work through it with you.
Once we receive your return and inspect it, we'll process your refund within 5–7 business days. Refunds go back to your original payment method — credit card, PayPal, or Afterpay depending on how you paid. Afterpay refunds follow Afterpay's own processing timelines, which can take a few extra days to appear. The following items are excluded from change-of-mind returns: earrings for hygiene reasons, any custom or personalised orders, and items marked as final sale at the time of purchase. If you're unsure whether your item qualifies, just ask before you return it.