The short answer: about A$15, and you do not need our permission or anyone else's to start there.
The longer answer is a ladder. Each rung buys you something specific, and there is a point where spending more stops changing your Saturday. Here is where that point is.
Rung 1 — About A$15. The department store set.
Kmart, Big W and Target all sell a two-paddle pickleball set for around A$15. Typically two plywood paddles, a handful of balls, sometimes a bag. Kmart also does a version with a small net for about A$25.
What you get: a real game, today, with no shipping wait. This is genuinely the correct answer for most people reading this.
What you don't get: plywood paddles weigh roughly 255–310g against 200–230g for a composite paddle. That extra weight sits far from your hand, which makes the paddle slower to redirect at the net and pushes more impact shock into your wrist and elbow. The face is smooth, so you get essentially no spin. The sweet spot is small and unforgiving. And wood absorbs moisture — leave it in a boot over a wet weekend and the plies can warp.
Buy this if: you have never played, or you want spare paddles for guests. Nobody has ever regretted a A$15 experiment.
Rung 2 — A$60 to A$100. Your first real paddle.
This is where you get a polymer honeycomb core, an edge guard, and a fiberglass or composite face with actual texture on it.
What changes: the paddle drops 50–80g, the sweet spot grows noticeably, and the ball starts doing what you meant it to do. If you have played four or five times on a wood paddle and started getting annoyed, this rung is the fix, and it is the biggest single jump in the whole ladder.
Be realistic about the surface. At this price the textured face is a coating, and it wears. Reviewers of paddles in this bracket routinely report the grit smoothing off within weeks of regular outdoor play. That is normal for the tier, not a defect — but anyone telling you a sub-A$100 paddle has a tournament-grade raw carbon face is stretching it.
Rung 3 — A$130 to A$260. The committed player's paddle.
Australian brands live here. Spinex lists the NOVA at A$139 and the FLEX Hybrid at A$199. HUSTL, out of Melbourne, sits around A$199–259. Every specialist retailer's core range clusters in this band, and it is the most competitive part of the Australian market by a wide margin.
What changes: a genuine carbon or hybrid face that holds its texture, a thicker core (usually 14 or 16mm) that adds control, better weight balance, and — importantly — a warranty from someone you can actually reach.
Worth it if: you play weekly or more, or you have any wrist or elbow history. If you play once a month, this is a nice thing to own rather than a thing you need.
Rung 4 — A$300 to A$500. Tournament equipment.
Thermoformed construction, raw carbon faces, the well-known international names. Australian specialists carry these up to around A$480.
Only worth it if you play sanctioned tournaments and know what you are optimising for. If you cannot yet name the difference between a control paddle and a power paddle and say which one suits your game, this rung will not make you better — it will just be a nicer object.
One thing to check before you spend it: is that exact model on the USA Pickleball approved list? If you are buying it for tournaments, that is the whole point. Here is how to check.
The balls
This one is simple and most people overpay by accident.
The Franklin X-40 is the official outdoor ball of the Pickleball Australia Association and of USA Pickleball. Australian specialists sell it for around A$4 a ball. So a dozen of the actual official ball costs roughly A$48.
Which means: if an unbranded twelve-pack is priced anywhere near A$48, buy the Franklin instead. There is no version of that trade that favours the no-name.
Also worth knowing before you feel cheated: outdoor balls are consumables. Three to five sessions is normal, for the A$4 official ball as much as for anything else. They crack along the seams, go out of round, and get brittle below about 10°C — which matters on a Melbourne or Canberra winter morning. Buy them by the dozen and stop thinking of them as equipment.
The net — and how to not spend A$225 yet
Here is the thing nobody selling nets will tell you: you do not need one to start.
Plenty of driveway pickleball is played with no net at all. You rally, you keep score, you get better. Some people lay a rope or a garden hose across the middle as a visual marker. It is a real game.
When you do want one, portable nets in Australia run roughly A$189 to A$289 from brands with local stock and a local warranty — Dinkum at A$225, LUFT Club at A$269, Picklenet Heavy Duty at A$289 are all in that band. Above that you are into A$499–749 club-grade equipment.
What actually fails on cheap nets is the joints. Friction-fit connections develop play and the frame goes wobbly; push-button locking pins and shock-cord systems last far longer. Budget nets are widely reported to need replacing after about a season of regular use. If you are comparing two nets, ask about the joint system before you ask about anything else.
The lines: don't buy them
Court line marker kits exist and they are fine. You almost certainly do not need one.
- Concrete or bitumen: a box of footpath chalk. A few dollars, marks a full court in ten minutes, washes off in the next rain.
- Grass: a garden hose or a length of rope, weighted at the corners.
- Indoors: painter's masking tape. Lifts clean.
A full court is 13.41m long by 6.10m wide. Measure it once with a tape, mark the corners and the kitchen lines, and you are done.
So what should you actually spend?
| Situation | Spend | On what |
|---|---|---|
| Never played, curious | ~A$15 | Department store set. That's it. |
| Played a few times, hooked | ~A$80–150 | One decent paddle each, a dozen balls |
| Playing weekly, want a court at home | ~A$400–600 | Two mid-range paddles, balls, a net with good joints |
| Entering tournaments | A$300+ per paddle | An approved model you have chosen deliberately |
The cheapest thing you can do is join a club
The Pickleball Australia Association currently lists 184 clubs across the country. Most run beginner sessions, most will lend you a paddle for your first go, and turning up on your own is completely normal — it is a famously friendly sport.
That costs less than the Kmart set and tells you more.
Prices checked August 2026 and they move — always confirm before you buy. We have no affiliation with any retailer named here and were not paid to mention any of them. If a price on this page is wrong, tell us at hello@paddleroo.com and we will correct it.