Whippa Wollemi 90 Ultralight Expedition Pack Review

Overview

The Wollemi 90 is Whippa’s flagship expedition hauler — a Dyneema-fabric (UHMWPE) pack built for multi-day trips where volume and load capacity matter more than shaving the last few grams. It’s aimed at packrafters, winter tourers, and anyone doing long off-track routes in places like Tasmania where you’re carrying six-plus days of food and gear at once. If your trips top out at three or four days with a bear canister and a tent, this pack is almost certainly more than you need — but for genuine expedition-length carries, it’s built specifically for that job.

Key Specs

Spec	Detail
Weight	1,160 g (1.16 kg)
Main body volume	~82–83 L
Front stash pocket	~8 L
Optional Expedition Hood	+10 L
Total usable volume	Up to 100 L with hood
Max rated load	30 kg
Height range	60–90 cm (adjustable)
Width / Depth	34 cm / 24 cm
Body fabric	Ultra 200X (UHMWPE)
Base fabric	Ultra 800X UHMWPE
Back panel	UltraGrid (210D recycled yarn + Dyneema)
Closure	Roll-top
Made in	Katoomba, NSW, Australia

Performance

Weight vs. capacity. This is the pack’s whole pitch, and the numbers back it up. A comparable 100L pack like the Wilderness Equipment Mountain Expedition weighs exactly two kilograms more than the Wollemi, which is a big difference when you’re carrying it for a week or two. The trade-off most ultralight packs make to hit that kind of weight is skipping a real suspension system — the Wollemi doesn’t.

Load carrying. Whippa built this around a proper harness rather than just a stiffened back panel. The foam thickness for the hip belt and back padding has been upped from 10 to 20mm compared to Whippa’s smaller Overland pack, reflecting the heavier loads it’s likely to carry, and the hip belt has stabilisers and HDPE reinforcement for more structure. In practice, testers report it holding up to real expedition loads: one reviewer took it out loaded with supplies for six days and it handled that with ease, noting the 30kg rating seems pretty much spot on. A user on Backpacking Light who put it head-to-head against a Hyperlite Porter said the pack was incredibly comfortable, only felt the weight in his legs, and had no discomfort from the pack itself or red marks on his shoulders or hips after getting home.

Weather protection. Given it’s aimed at packrafting and off-track expedition use, waterproofing matters a lot here, and it seems to deliver. The materials are either waterproof or have a waterproof backing, and with all seams tape-sealed, the pack is essentially waterproof, with a roll-top enclosure and large waterproof front stash pocket. One owner reported riding out a serious storm without issue: they spent a couple of days at Cradle Mountain in 60+km/h winds with sideways rain and it didn’t miss a beat, with no water getting through to the inside even with just dry bags rather than a full pack liner.

Durability. The fabric choices are aimed squarely at abuse. The pack body uses abrasion-, UV- and tear-resistant Ultra 200X, the base uses Ultra 800X UHMWPE with double the abrasion resistance of 1000D Cordura, and the back panel uses tear-resistant UltraGrid, a 210D recycled yarn woven with Dyneema. A Wild magazine reviewer who’s put serious off-track kilometres on it said flatly that despite doubts that any ultralight pack could survive off-track walking in Tasmania, this pack challenges those preconceptions and he’d take it off-track in Tas without hesitation.

Sizing flexibility. Because it’s a roll-top, you’re not locked into carrying it fully expanded. At 1.22kg it’s still light compared to most 60L packs, and because of the roll-top, if you’re not filling the Wollemi you can just roll it down further to bring it closer to 60L capacity. That’s a genuinely useful bit of flexibility if your load varies trip to trip — you’re not stuck hauling a half-empty 90L bag. The hip belt is also sized independently from torso length, so fit isn’t a one-size-compromise situation.

Where info is thin. This is a niche, direct-from-manufacturer product with a small user base outside Australia, so I couldn’t find long-term durability reports (say, past a season or two of hard use), nor much on how the harness handles loads well above 25kg for extended periods. One Backpacking Light user shopping this pack against the Seek Outside Unaweep and HMG Porter noted he couldn’t find many reviews on the Wollemi, so he was uncertain about the pack in general because of that — that scarcity of independent, long-haul reviews is worth flagging if you’re buying sight-unseen from outside Australia.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Genuinely light for a 90L pack rated to 30kg — undercuts comparable heavy-hauler packs by roughly 2kg
• Real suspension: padded hip belt, hip belt stabilisers, load lifters, not just a foam back panel
• Tape-sealed, essentially waterproof construction — good for packrafting and wet climates
• Roll-top design lets you compress down toward 60L when not fully loaded
• Durable UHMWPE fabrics that hold up to off-track scrub and abrasion
• Made in Australia, with a small manufacturer that’s responsive to feedback and support requests
• Optional Expedition Hood adds 10L when you need it, without permanently adding bulk

Cons

• 90L is overkill for most trips under a week — you’re paying for capacity you may rarely use
• Limited independent, long-term reviews outside Australia; buying sight-unseen from overseas is a leap of faith
• Direct-to-consumer only from a small Australian brand, so international shipping and lead times (some listings note 10-12 week backorder waits) can be a factor
• No hydration port by default — some users have specifically asked Whippa to leave this off for waterproofing on packrafting trips, which is fine if you don’t need it but worth knowing upfront
• At this size and price point, you’re competing with well-established players like HMG Porter and Seek Outside, and comparative long-term data between them is scarce

Who Should Buy This

This pack makes sense if you’re doing genuine multi-day expedition trips — six-plus days off-track, winter touring with heavy kit, or packrafting trips where you need both volume and weatherproofing — and you want to carry it all without resorting to a 3+ kg traditional pack. If your longest trips are weekend-to-4-day affairs, look at Whippa’s smaller Overland 60 or Access 60 instead; the Wollemi’s extra capacity and beefed-up harness are wasted weight if you’re not routinely pushing 20kg+ loads.

Verdict

The Wollemi 90 delivers on its core promise: expedition-scale capacity and load support at a weight that undercuts most comparable packs by a couple of kilograms, backed by genuinely waterproof, abrasion-resistant construction. The main caveat isn’t the pack itself but the paper trail — independent long-term reviews are still thin, especially outside Australia, so factor in some risk if you’re ordering sight-unseen. For the right use case, though, I’d put this at an 8.3/10.