Robyn Gillespie's Last Kombi Weekenders
“After 41 years, my hands won’t do it any more.” — Robyn (71) is selling her last hand-quilted Kombi bags at a special price. When the shed’s empty, that’s the end of them.
12 September 2026
Robyn Gillespie is seventy-one. For forty-one years she has sewn travel bags by hand, in an old shed behind her house in Mullumbimby, New South Wales. Every one has a Kombi stitched on the front. Now she has to stop. What’s left on her shelves is the last of the Hippie Bus Weekender.
“My eyes are perfect. It’s the hand that’s gone.”
The shed used to be for packing bananas. Today it’s full of cotton in yellow, turquoise and lavender. There’s a radio on the shelf and a tin of pins.
Above the machine hangs an old photo from 1973: a Kombi on a red dirt road, both doors open.
Along the back wall are four shelves of finished bags. Every week there are fewer.
“Everyone thinks it will be the eyes. Mine are perfect. It’s the hand that’s gone.”
In 2019, Robyn felt a hard lump in her right palm. By 2022, two of her fingers wouldn’t lie flat any more. A doctor in Lismore treated it in 2023, and it helped for a while. Then it came back — and started in her left hand too.
It’s called Dupuytren’s contracture. It slowly pulls the fingers in towards the palm. It doesn’t get better.
She can still cut fabric. She can still thread the machine. But she can’t hold a quilt flat and steady any more. And that’s the whole job.
Forty-one years, 6,800 bags, and one trip she has never stopped sewing
Why is there a Kombi on every bag? The answer goes back to 1973.
“I was eighteen,” Robyn says. “We had an old 1966 Kombi with a mattress in the back. We drove up to Nimbin for the big festival — and then we just kept going.”
Up the coast to Cairns. Across to Darwin. Then onto a ship, with the Kombi tied to the deck, over to Bali and Java. Sixteen months in total.
She came home with a bag full of colourful cloth from Indonesia. She didn’t start sewing for another twelve years. But she never forgot those colours.
“Nobody taught me to sew. Indonesia taught me how to look at cloth.”
She made the first bag in 1985, as a favour. A friend was taking her kids on a holiday and needed something to pack their things in. Robyn quilted a bag and sewed a little Kombi on the front.
Within a month, three of that friend’s friends wanted one too.
For the next thirty years, Robyn sold her bags at local markets around Byron Bay. She never advertised and never had a shop. Most weekends she sold out.
Since 1985 she has made 6,800 of them. All by hand, in that shed. No two exactly the same.
What makes Robyn’s bags different
Pick one up and you feel it straight away. It’s solid, but soft. The colours aren’t printed on. They are layers of real fabric, sewn on by hand.
The best-known design has a Kombi with peace signs for wheels, two round headlights and a row of sunflowers on the roof.
“No two are the same,” Robyn says. “Sometimes a sunflower comes out a bit bigger. That’s not a mistake. That’s how you know it wasn’t printed.”
Here’s what you get:
✓ Quilted by hand. About fourteen hours of handwork in every bag. It keeps its shape, even when it’s packed full.
✓ The Kombi on the front. Wheels, headlights, windows and sunflowers — each piece cut out and sewn on by hand.
✓ Five designs. Flower Power Caravan, Sunset Strummer, Stay Wild Forest, Coastal Surfer Camper and Cherry Blossom Glamping.
✓ Comfortable handles. Padded all the way along, so they don’t dig into your hand when the bag is full.
✓ Just the right size. 45 × 23 × 25 cm, about 22 litres, 820 grams. Enough for a weekend away. Fits as a cabin bag on domestic flights.
✓ Numbered by hand. Every bag has a numbered tag inside. Robyn writes each number in a notebook she started in 1985.
Check availability →
“There’s a woman still travelling with one I made in 2007”
What Robyn is proudest of is how long her bags last.
“A woman emailed me asking for a new zip pull,” she says. “She bought the bag in 2007. It’s been to Bali eleven times. Nineteen years, and the only thing that broke was a tiny piece of metal. The colours still look the same.”
A few years ago, one of her customers sent a postcard from Broome:
“Dear Robyn — the Kombi bag made it to Cable Beach. Ninth summer with me, and it still looks better than everyone else’s luggage on this bus.”
— Broome, 2014
It’s still pinned above her machine, next to the old photo.
Five designs, one trip — and then the shelves are bare
There are five designs, and each one comes from a different part of the same trip. Flower Power Caravan is the Kombi itself. Sunset Strummer is the guitar around the campfire at Nimbin. Stay Wild Forest is the big forests on the way north. Coastal Surfer Camper is the beaches between Byron and Cairns. Cherry Blossom Glamping came from a garden in Java.
The last batch — and why there won’t be another
In 2023, Robyn made a big decision. She stopped going to the markets.
“I worked out roughly how much my hands had left,” she says, “and then I made all of it.”
She spent three years making one final batch, all at once. That’s what is on the shelves now.
There won’t be any more. Her son is an electrician in Brisbane. Nobody else wants to sit at a sewing machine for fourteen hours to make one bag.
“I’d rather stop on my own terms than have my hand stop me halfway through a bag.”
She could ask a lot more for them. At the craft markets, a hand-quilted bag like this sells for three hundred and forty to four hundred dollars. Robyn charged those prices for thirty years.
For the last ones, she is asking far less. And she’s very clear about why.
“These bags are made for going places. I don’t want them sitting on a shelf. Take one, put it in the boot and go somewhere.”
Final collection →
What buyers say about the Hippie Bus Weekender
✅ Kerry M., 57, Ballarat VIC ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“I didn’t expect a bag to put me in a good mood, but it does. Every time I pack it, the weekend feels like a real trip. A man at the train station stopped me to ask about it.”
✅ Narelle D., 63, Toowoomba QLD ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“Took mine to Bali in February. Three women at the pool asked where it came from. The work in it is amazing — every stitch is exactly where it should be.”
✅ Jo H., 51, Fremantle WA ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“A present to myself for my fiftieth. Two camping weekends and two weeks in Vietnam, and it still looks new.”
Where can you buy Robyn’s bags?
Robyn’s bags are sold in one place only: Backroad Goods. Her grandson Jarrah, who is twenty-eight, runs it for her.
“Jarrah does everything,” she says. “He takes the photos, packs the bags and takes them to the post office. I just sew.”
One warning: copies of these bags have started to appear on Temu and other big online marketplaces. They may look similar in photos. But they aren’t made by Robyn, and they don’t have her numbered tag inside.
When the last one goes, that’s it
Since the special price started, the bags are going faster than Jarrah expected.
UPDATE:
“We’ve sent out a lot of the final batch this week. There’s no restock. When the shelves are empty, that’s the end.”
— Jarrah Gillespie, Backroad Goods
Final collection →
Common questions
Where can I get one?
Only through Backroad Goods, using the links on this page. Not on Temu, Amazon or any other marketplace.
How long will they be available?
Until the shelves are empty. There won’t be another batch.
Can I try one without any risk?
Yes. There’s a 90-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked. If it isn’t right, email info@backroad-goods.com and send it back.
How do I look after it?
Wipe it clean and let it air dry. Don’t put it in the washing machine. That’s all it needs.
The bottom line
This bag has a real Kombi on it.
Robyn drove that Kombi around Australia and over to Indonesia when she was eighteen. She has sewn it onto every bag since 1985. Each one is made by hand, and made to last — ready for your next weekend away.
Thank you, Robyn.
Robyn’s personal 90-day money-back guarantee
Robyn asked for one thing: a 90-day money-back guarantee on every bag, no questions asked.
“I want these bags to be used,” she says. “If it’s not right for you, send it back. I just want it to make somebody happy.”
Secure Yours — 55% OffFree shipping Australia-wide →
What people are saying online
📰 Steph W., Newcastle NSW
“I drove up to Mullumbimby to meet Robyn last month. Fabric everywhere, little Kombis pinned to the wall, old photos from her trip. I bought two — one for me, one for Mum’s seventieth.”
📰 Bec T., Hobart TAS
“Took mine up the east coast over Christmas. Two people asked about it at the same petrol station. One of them wanted to buy it off me!”
📰 Lou P., Adelaide SA
“Finally a travel bag that doesn’t look mass-produced. Four years old, eleven weekends away, still looks new. If you can still get one, get one.”
The last of Robyn’s bags →