Nambour Community Revitalisation: The 100% Bottom-Up Model

The Context

Nambour was suffering from a distinct form of regional fatigue: a perception of “too much talk, not enough action.” Despite multiple government-funded planning initiatives, the town remained in economic decline, plagued by high business turnover and social dislocation.

The challenge was not a lack of ideas but a lack of cohesion. The community was fractured, with competing interest groups unable to agree on a unified path forward. Nambour required a circuit breaker a strategic intervention that could bypass bureaucratic deadlock and unify the town around a single, actionable vision.

The Collaboration

POMO spearheaded this initiative as a pro-bono leadership project, partnering with the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) and a dedicated group of local residents. Unlike traditional consulting engagements, this project operated with zero initial government funding, relying instead on the intellectual capital of local experts, registered planners, and final-year urban planning students.

Delivering the Nambour Place Strategy: The Implementation Process

Our role was to professionalise community sentiment. We moved beyond standard “town hall” complaints to create a rigorous, professionally recognised planning and urban design instrument.

Structured Problem Solving

We structured the engagement to mirror a formal planning process. Rather than an open wish list, we established five strict themes for investigation: Built Environment, Transport, Social Justice, Natural Environment, and Economic Development. Community leaders were appointed to chair each stream, ensuring local ownership was embedded in the governance structure from day one.

Technical Documentation & Student Integration

To bridge the resource gap, we integrated USC planning students into the delivery team. Under the mentorship of POMO’s registered planners, students completed their PIA (Planning Institute of Australia) work placement criteria by documenting community solutions. This provided the project with the technical manpower to produce professional-grade reports while offering students high-value, real-world experience.

The Expert-Community Validation Loop

A critical “implementation” step was the validation phase. We paired community groups with local subject matter experts architects, engineers, and social workers to test and refine their ideas. This ensured that the final strategy was not just a collection of grievances but a suite of viable, technically sound solutions ready for policy adoption.

The Impact

The project successfully delivered the Community Led Place Strategy, a comprehensive report formally handed over to Council in 2022. This document has since influenced the Council’s strategic direction for downtown revitalisation and economic development, proving that a fractured community can unite to drive policy.
This process has applicability to any community with passionate people, a few experts and some committed professionals. The methodology is simple and easily replicated. The benefits included:

  • Bringing diverse stakeholders together and quelling fractures in the community
  • Providing a high quality student mentoring process which was unique and extremely hands on for graduating planning students
  • Showing how local communities can solve local problems and breaking down the barriers between consultants and residents by acting as one and fighting for a series of common goals
  • Taking a community engagement process and returning it to the people and showing how it can be done for zero $ with zero government involvement
  • Showing how meaningful collaboration and engagement driven by locals can lead to outcomes that feed into real policy decisions by government

The project’s innovative methodology was recognised as a finalist in the 2023 Planning Institute of Australia Awards, setting a benchmark for how communities can generate professional urban strategies from the bottom up.

Thanks to the project leaders Grant Palethorpe, Paul William Smith, Ardleigh Cleveland, student participants, community members and consultants and experts Keith Grisman, Alex Hoffman and thanks to USC and Dr. Nick Stevens.

Process - Infographic

Sustainability Outcomes

Social Sustainability Outcomes

  • Builds Community Capacity and Empowerment: This is the project’s most significant outcome. By creating a “100% bottom-up” process driven by residents, it demonstrated that the community itself holds the solutions to its own challenges. This process empowers citizens, builds their skills in civic engagement and planning, and creates a powerful precedent for future community-led initiatives.
  • Fosters Social Cohesion and Unified Vision: The project successfully brought together diverse and previously fractured community groups. By facilitating a collaborative process to identify shared problems and co-design solutions, it quelled internal divisions and unified stakeholders around a single, strategic vision for Nambour’s future.
  • Creates a Direct Pathway to Policy Influence: The community-generated report was formally handed over to local government and has directly influenced council’s strategic thinking. This creates a tangible link between grassroots activism and official policy, ensuring that future development is authentically aligned with the community’s desires and needs.
  • Develops Future Leaders and Professionals: The integration of university students into the process provided invaluable real-world experience. This unique mentoring model not only brought “fresh eyes” to the town’s problems but also helped train the next generation of planners and community leaders with a deep understanding of community-centric design.

Environmental Sustainability Outcomes

  • Integrates Environmental Concerns into Core Planning: By establishing the “natural environment” as one of the five key themes for problem-solving, the project ensured that environmental sustainability was a core component of the community’s vision, rather than an afterthought.
  • Generates Community-Owned Environmental Solutions: The project structure, which appointed community leaders and groups to tackle the natural environment theme, ensures that proposed environmental solutions are locally relevant, practical, and supported by the residents who will ultimately be responsible for implementing and maintaining them.
  • Provides a Framework for Sustainable Development: While specific “green” designs are not detailed, the community-led master plan provides a powerful guiding document for all future development. This ensures that as Nambour grows, decisions regarding infrastructure, green space, and land use will be assessed against the sustainable, community-endorsed vision.

Ready to break the deadlock?

Contact POMO to discuss how we can structure a community-led strategy for your town.



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