Paperbark Deathcare

20/08/2026

Ok so ‘reduced visibility’ is happening, too mouthy, don’t do enough hash tags, or replies to comments, or replies to messages & too big of a gap in posts…all true & not really sure I care because this tech world still freaks me right out…yet I do it…also I’ll never use AI to post on here this will always be moi whispering sweet nothings one minute & slaying the next…we have some incoming news that we are pretty exited to share so it would be good if when we do there is no ‘ban’ on thy butt whilst doom scrolling for the deathly dopamine hits…I have a question, reminds me of Steiner days as an early childhood educator singing away whilst making endless crunchy buns for the children…now it’s scones for the dead’s peeps ensuring there is enough jam & cream…wouldn’t want it any other way…so the question… Open shut them, open shut them, give a little clap…creep them creep them right up to your chin…but do not let them in…a favourite…so open or closed coffin/casket/shroud or Paperbark Pod? Are you ok with having your body viewed after you have died? Ever asked yourself that question?…I of course have much to say on this & have strong personal beliefs that are my own & most days we have to keep our personal stories/belief/values on neutral ground because what aunty Dorothy wants is cousin Franks worst nightmare causing your best friends sister to go to therapy for a good part of a decade to come to peace with the fact that grandma Lo**ta was a very naughty girl because the dna test by Ancestry just landed a smoke bomb email letting you know your mother has 6 siblings in Italy when your parents have never left the country? All while no one actually knew what Jack wanted to have happen to his body when he died causing his religious son & hippy daughter to fight over earth & fire like Vikings on meth…I s**t you not these are true stories & some I can never say out loud because I’d be scheduled they are so unbelievable… O P E N or C L O S E D, anyone who answers don’t care will be shortlisted for being haunted by that witchy great aunt Barbara who you thought liked you…

18/08/2026

Harvesting with the gang…some facts about these beautiful trees…

It is said that paperbark are continuously shedding, yet I have noticed they seem to let go twice a year as seasons change…….Sustainable harvesting of the outer sheets doesn’t damage the tree, they keep growing new bark….what’s taken from the surface doesn’t take from underneath…
Seems that last sentence is this year’s musings…while I’m at it also back to birds & death…did you know there are two types of bird families - those who prey on small mammals & other birds & then the birds who only hunt for insects…eagles, hawks, falcons, butcher birds etc while the wagtails, frogmouths, swallows & wrens gently go about their days with the others waiting in the wings to snack them for dins if the opportunity arises….I remember and old lady is Cusco telling me we are either an eagle or a robin, that it’s important who you love & grow old with are from the same flock cause in the end a robin cannot ever sleep soundly with an eagle…its the oldest agreement in nature, birds of feather flock together, it just takes a while to realise what is different for us all… what we fed on & who we fed…I’m no eagle I know that, can soar with them for a hawt minute but I am most at home in the shrubs hanging out with these wag tails….🖤

15/08/2026

Stranger than fiction…full stop.

This evening, we are driving home from Paperbark & I look out the window to my left & a jabiru is cruising along beside us in the rain…it was quite something…

Birds, there is always a bird at death…today it was a jabiru, that’s a first…anyone else seen one in the Northern Rivers?

It’s been quite a week & to end with was very special…🖤

Art - Jabiru Evening Flight by Mark Gawne

07/08/2026

Refurbing the new digs one day, polished ragamuffins the next…

1st pic - Lisa & Claire having cup of tea between painting & discussing the endless ideas for the new floor plan….

2nd pic - Whoosh all scrubbed up & off in Cindy to a ceremony (Cindy is our Brisbane hearse, she is a little older & far more refined, Cherry is the Northern Rivers cruiser & the gangster in the growing fleet)…

☠️🤍

07/08/2026

Little bottles of stardust love….✨

31/07/2026

It’s all a bit cliche the let go talk we do (this songs words). I realised something a few years ago witnessing what transpires within families as the skeletons fall out the closet when death comes to the home, it’s the forgiveness card that gets held tight to the chest. You know the one that doesn’t get played much because along with grief swirling, coming in a close second is the inability to forgive. This is something I have struggled with & as time passes I’m coming to see & feel it is one of the trickiest cauldrons to sit within truly deeply going there, not just the lip surface pushing the hurt down…I saw this poem the other day while we were all painting the new Paperbark digs. Reflecting on how the roads led to this moment & how this forgiveness card landed in front of me along with the smell of all the paperbark in full bloom everywhere, the smell of sweet woody honey…I crushed some in my hands at the cemetery the smell was potent, tears arrived & the timing was good because this past week has been very revealing & the lessons a plenty…we never know or understand why we truly hurt others or feel hurt by them, it’s not that simple….yet here we all are hurting each other with our words, actions & ways of being that have far reaching impacts on those crushed flowers/hearts…may we take a moment to smell the flowers before seeing them…we can forgive, yet we never forget…& that is where the gift of forgiveness either makes us or breaks us…

27/07/2026

L I F E E N D S, B U T P A P E R W O R K C O N T I N U E S… Thursday 6 August, 10am

It’s local government week & we have been asked to give a talk next Thursday at Tweed Valley Cemetery on all things paperwork & what needs to be actioned when we die & what can wait…it’s a maze & can be very overwhelming, we have created a couple of documents & will share some wisdom on how to tuck these very helpful checklists away for when you need them…plus a few stories on what happens when you don’t…if in the Northern Rivers you are welcome to attend in person - need to RSVP though as they need to know how many scones to make! For everyone else you can watch it online, link in bio…



https://events.humanitix.com/life-ends-but-paperwork-continues

24/07/2026

22/07/2026

Well um hello the flannels flowers are back with their delicate velvety hearts making me swoon over this weeks blooms adorning the dead…

It has only just come to my knowledge that we have been online hacked on socials for some time we think - months - so if you have messaged & our chat was deleted or you received any odd communications or none at all it’s likely I didn’t even see your DM messages…a little ferret sniffing around playing snoop dog has been logging in causing a bit of f&ckry…sorted out now but gee wizz bang I can be a bit of a numpty not picking up on this sooner…

So update…imagine being able to give the unhinged real world talk, a deathly daily dose of mercurial medicine without all the PC fluff?…

If you are being called to deathcare work listen closely & silently more often than not….reminder….you do not ‘call it in’…messing with spirit if ya are…🖤

Its getting all a bit odd & cringe this vo**ur kink but then maybe it’s just I don’t have the time to feather the realities of what returning death home really is…everyone seems to want the easy way round outsourcing where it’s most important to roll up thy sleeves then begin the long walk getting hands dirty because by gosh you have to get so lost in the mystery before one is found making shroud bearers at midnight like it’s 1788…fyi…Paperbark has burnt & buried more shroud bearers in the last 5 years than any other deathcare/funeral service in the west - worldwide…

Ok shutting up now, love to all the frontlines doing the thing, the night flight pick ups & home vigil setups & gently washing the dead & wrapping them in complete love snuggling them in to suspension spaces that are truly locally owned & run…so much more to this but will come in hawt soon…when I actually have the time to finger fo**le this bloody screen…

Night 🖤

05/07/2026

Any morticians following along on this Paperbark story in Brisbane? Shoot us an email!