POMO

Creative Placemaking Consultants

Engagement, Design and Delivery

POMO is an Award Winning Creative Placemaking Practice. We Help Create Successful Public Places.

As placemaking design and delivery specialists, we partner with local governments and urban designers to help create and revitalise public places of all scales. Our work creates layers of meaning by expressing local stories, culture, history and place identity.

Our experience spans community engagement, all facets of design, bespoke artistic construction and delivery. Our outcomes create authentic connections between people, cultures, and community, delivering measurable social and economic value.

“Nobody else can do what POMO does”. David, Landscape Architect

Our work delivers a level of fine detail and bespoke expression that is typically very hard to achieve in urban design processes. Through the engagement and design process, we interpret themes of people and places and express them artistically in the public environment. This creative placemaking builds successful public spaces, unifies communities, and leaves a meaningful legacy.

From inception to delivery, our process unifies people around a shared vision. Our technical expertise in all facets of placemaking from community engagement through to design and bespoke construction, allows us to deliver high-quality outcomes that remain true to their original vision.

We actively collaborate with a diverse range of artists and specialist makers across Australia, including First Nations artists.

What We Do

Creative Placemaking: Design & Delivery →

Our work bridges the gap between high-level strategy and the tactile reality of creating nuanced, creative places that tell stories and reflect the hearts and minds of communities.
Community Engagement Consultants →

We have a community engagement process that brings people together around a shared vision, whether this be community members or internal stakeholders. We use place narratives, culture, and place identity to develop unique “people and place” focused outcomes. We collaboratively develop the engagement program with our clients, and where relevant, thread those engagement outcomes through a design and delivery process and into tangible outcomes.
Placemaking Strategy →

We uncover the unique DNA of a place. Our strategies combine historical ecology, social psychology, consultation and economic analysis to create a roadmap for revitalisation. We align high-level urban planning with on-the-ground reality, ensuring projects are socially sustainable and place appropriate.
Workshop Facilitation & Co-Design →

We specialise in maintaining a "strategic thread" from the first community workshop through to the final built outcome. Our co-design process creates a unified vision among diverse stakeholder groups, often bridging the gap between constraints and community aspirations. Our facilitation moves beyond brainstorming; we use design-thinking methodologies to produce technical constraints and opportunities (C&O) mapping, ensuring ideas are feasible and budget-aligned.
Design Guidelines/Statutory Policy →

POMO is frequently engaged by government bodies to author Place-Driven Design Guidelines that become endorsed Council documents or feed into statutory publications. We translate intangible "place character" into frameworks that ensure future built environments respect local place identity. These documents serve as the "guardrails" for urban renewal, giving developers and planners a clear set of metrics for materiality, form, and cultural interpretation.
Project Management (Client Side) →

We act as the client's representative, ensuring the creative vision is delivered on time and on budget. We bridge the gap between the design team and the construction team, managing contractors and fabricators to ensure quality and integrity are maintained throughout the delivery process.
Creative Infrastructure Through Interpretive Design →

We deliver Integrated Interpretive Design Outcomes that function as critical creative streetscape or other public infrastructure. We collaborate with makers, artists, specialist tradespeople and fabricators. Our work is often aimed at building capacity in the regional or local creative economy, merging functional utility with deep storytelling.
Wayfinding Signage & Interpretive Signage →

We design and deliver bespoke interpretive and wayfinding signage, often integrating cultural and historical storytelling. We believe legibility equals economic vitality, and we create systems that improve dwell time and deliver on place meaning. We combine place research, stakeholder engagement, and narrative design to create clear, intuitive visitor journeys.

Other Projects

Miles Main Street Revitalisation: Regional Placemaking & Urban Renewal

Regional town centres often struggle with generic urban design that fails to resonate with local history or encourage economic “stickiness.” In the heart of the Western Downs, the town of Miles required more than a standard streetscape upgrade; it needed a strategic revitalisation that could express its unique cultural heritage while fostering a renewed sense of community pride.

Palmwoods Town Square: Delivering Community Identity through Creative Placemaking - Bespoke Urban Infrastructure

For decades, the physical centre of Palmwoods was defined by a sloping asphalt car park that offered utility but no community connection. The Sunshine Coast Council identified the need to transform this functional void into a genuine town square.
The challenge was not simply to build a modern park, but to deliver a “civic heart” that felt established and authentic. The community did not want a generic urban upgrade; they demanded a space that reflected the town’s timber-getting history and agricultural heritage. The mandate was to create new infrastructure that felt like it had been there for a century and fit with the historical buildings that surrounded it.

Southport Broadwater Play Attraction: Delivering Place-Based Creative Play Infrastructure

Destination playgrounds are increasingly vital for urban activation, but they often rely on off-the-shelf equipment that lacks connection to place. For the Southport Broadwater Parklands, the City of Gold Coast required an iconic play attraction that was not only fun but deeply rooted in the ecological narrative of the Broadwater Estuary.

Landsborough Main Street Revitalisation: Driving Regional Identity through Creative Infrastructure

POMO was engaged to work alongside the Sunshine Coast Council in the renewal of Cribb Street - Landsborough’s main street. The project was part of a larger master planning process being run by council.
Specifically we participated in the community engagement process to help ascertain community attitudes and expectations around the revitalisation project.

108 Wickham Street: Delivering Strategic Creative Placemaking in Fortitude Valley

Fortitude Valley is one of Brisbane’s most dynamic commercial precincts, yet the public realm between 100 and 108 Wickham Street had become a fragmented and underutilised thoroughfare. The asset owners required a repositioning strategy to transform this void into a high-value “third space” for tenants and the public.

Mackay Place Strategy: From Vision to Activation

Mackay’s City Centre and Waterfront were facing a common regional challenge: despite significant investment in infrastructure, the public realm lacked the “stickiness” required to drive economic activity. The opening of a nearby major shopping centre and changing consumer habits had drained life from the streets.

Nambour CBD Creative Renewal: Activating the Night-Time Economy

For regional centres like Nambour, the “night-time economy” is often hampered by poor lighting and a perception of disjointed safety. The town required a strategic intervention to shift the public realm from a transit corridor into a destination that felt safe, vibrant, and welcoming after dark.

Dura Gunga: Delivering First Nations Cultural Art as Public Infrastructure

Integrating authentic First Nations narratives into civic infrastructure requires more than just artistic vision; it demands a rigorous delivery framework that respects cultural protocols while meeting public safety standards. For the entrance to the new City Hall in Maroochydore, the Sunshine Coast Council required a landmark piece that would permanently embed the Gubi Gubi story into the built environment.

Nambour Community Revitalisation: The 100% Bottom-Up Model

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.

High Street Armadale: Strategic Temporary Activation

High Street Armadale is one of Melbourne’s premier destinations for luxury shopping and personal services. However, despite its commercial success, the street suffered from a specific functional deficit: a lack of public seating. Visitors waiting for appointments or shopping partners had nowhere to pause, forcing them to stand or leave the immediate area.

Smart City Signage Infrastructure: Maroochydore City Centre

Establishing a new greenfield CBD requires a bold departure from standard urban design. The Maroochydore City Centre is not just a commercial precinct but a benchmark for future-ready urbanism on the Sunshine Coast. The challenge was to move beyond generic street signage and deliver intelligent, interactive highly durable assets that reinforce the precinct’s place identity.

Winter Street: Creating Community Connection through Placemaking and Data

Malvern’s Winter Street “pocket park” presented a classic urban design failure: a residual green space strategically located between a toy library, a childcare centre, and a supermarket, yet completely underutilised. The site offered zero amenity, two lonely benches meant local workers ate lunch on the ground and families transited through without pausing. The City of Stonnington required a rapid, evidence-based intervention to test the site’s potential before committing to significant capital works.

POMO’s Bush Studio: Delivering a Benchmark in Sustainable Commercial Office Design

Building a commercial headquarters in the Sunshine Coast hinterland presented a complex technical challenge. The site featured a steep gradient and significant old-growth vegetation, requiring a construction methodology that would eliminate the need for heavy earthworks or excavation. The objective was to move beyond standard office typologies and deliver a “living lab” that physically demonstrated our philosophy of cost-effective, high-performance, and environmentally sensitive design.

Mission Beach CBD Revitalisation

This project is underway in mid 2025 and will completely change the public realm of the entire oceanfront area of Mission Beach in North Queensland.

Dandenong Living Neighbourhood: Transitioning to Community-Led Placemaking

In the heart of the Dandenong town centre, the City of Greater Dandenong identified a critical operational challenge. Two key precincts the Southern Gateway (Settlers Square and train station surrounds) and the Northern Bookend (Palm Plaza) were struggling with poor amenity, safety perceptions, and a lack of social cohesion.

Caloundra Community & Creative Hub: Embedding Cultural Narrative in Built Form

The Sunshine Coast Council faced a significant urban design challenge: how to transform the heart of Caloundra into a cohesive “Community and Creative Hub.” The project scope involved integrating major new cultural assets, a contemporary Library and Regional Gallery, with a new Town Square and high street connection.

Temporary Placemaking NSW

This project involves the creation of a concept design for a temporary placemaking installation in a public space in NSW.

Montville Creative Lighting: Activating the Night-Time Economy

Montville is a jewel of the Sunshine Coast hinterland, yet its primary public park was underutilised once the sun went down. Local community groups identified a clear need to improve the night-time appeal of the space, transforming it from a dark thoroughfare into a safe and inviting destination for evening gatherings.

Gold Coast Light Rail Stage 3: Creative Placemaking in Major Transport Infrastructure

The Gold Coast Light Rail Stage 3 corridor, stretching from Broadbeach to Burleigh Heads, risked becoming a homogenous transit strip that ignored the rich, distinct histories of the suburbs it traversed. While the engineering requirement was for efficient transport, the cultural requirement was to resurrect the lost identities of the coast.

Dixon Reserve Creative Placemaking

This project is a collaboration between POMO lead landscape architects Aspect Studios. It involves the creation of a major park in Pimpama Gold Coast.

Nundah Village: Delivering Placemaking through Tactical Infrastructure

Nundah Village, a vibrant hub in Brisbane’s north, faced a common urban dilemma: a high-quality streetscape dominated by vehicle transit, leaving little room for genuine community connection. Brisbane City Council (BCC) identified the need to reclaim asphalt for people, but permanent capital works required distinct, data-led justification.

Understanding & Applying Place Character: Operationalising the ‘Spirit of Place’

While high-level design strategies often define broad values, they rarely provide the technical detail required for architects to translate “local character” into built form. The Sunshine Coast Council faced this exact “Implementation Gap.” They possessed a foundational vision but needed a practical manual that would allow the development industry to interpret the unique “Genius Loci” (spirit of place) of the coastal corridor. The challenge was to move beyond generic aesthetic upgrades and provide a granular, evidence-based toolkit that could guide design outcomes across three distinct geographic zones: Maroochydore, Kawana and Caloundra.

Australovenator: Designing Prehistoric Identity

POMO was engaged to provide the technical bridge between concept and reality. Working as a specialist implementation partner to Vee Design, we took the lead on the technical design and delivery of this complex interpretive element. This project exemplifies our ability to integrate with high-level landscape master plans and deliver the “fine grain” detail that turns a plan into a built outcome.

Mooloolaba Foreshore: Creating Immersive Place Identity

The Mooloolaba Foreshore Revitalisation presented a complex challenge: how to deliver a modern, world-class waterfront that remained authentically connected to its nostalgic roots. The Sunshine Coast Council led masterplan mandated “immersion” as a key design principle. The site required more than off-the-shelf furniture; it needed a suite of bespoke interventions that could withstand the harsh coastal environment while narrating the specific history of the site, from its pre-colonial ecology to its 1970s caravan park era.

Nambour Place Analysis: A Strategic Blueprint for Renewal

Nambour, once the administrative capital of the Sunshine Coast, faced a complex identity crisis following the closure of the Moreton Sugar Mill and the relocation of council chambers. The town suffered from “contested identity,” torn between its prosperous history and a gritty, economically challenged present. The Sunshine Coast Council required a definitive “Source of Truth” to guide the Namba Place Revitalisation Project. They needed more than a standard site analysis; they required a deep-dive forensic audit of the town’s social, historical, and physical fabric to de-risk urban design interventions.

Birtinya Library & Arts Space: Data-Driven Placemaking & Co-Design

Birtinya is a rapidly developing master-planned community on the Sunshine Coast facing a critical urban challenge: creating a genuine sense of “soul” and community connection in a greenfield environment. Sunshine Coast Council required a foundational strategy to guide the architectural design of the future Library and Arts Development Space. The objective was to move beyond generic community centre models and deliver a facility that responded to the specific demographic, environmental, and historical context of the Wallum Country landscape while deeply engaging the future users of the space.

Strategic Urban Renewal: Nambour 20/20 Vision

Nambour, once a thriving agricultural hub, faced significant economic and social stagnation following the closure of the Moreton Sugar Mill and the Bruce Highway bypass. The town suffered from a fractured identity, underutilised commercial real estate, and a CBD disconnected from its residents. With population growth predicted to exceed 50% over two decades, Nambour required more than aesthetic upgrades; it needed a rigorous 20-year structural master plan to transition from a transit town to a self-sustaining residential and creative precinct.

State Library of Queensland: Creating Heritage Immersion

The “Distant Lines” exhibition marked the centenary of the First World War, a high-stakes event for the State Library of Queensland (SLQ) requiring sensitivity and deep engagement. The primary operational challenge was logistical: efficiently moving large volumes of visitors from the ground floor public entry to the exhibition space on Level 1 without breaking the narrative immersion. Standard directional signage would have been functionally adequate but thematically jarring. The brief demanded a wayfinding solution that served a dual purpose of guiding foot traffic while acting as a “prelude” to the emotional weight of the exhibition.

USC Co-Lab Studio: Operationalising Institutional Co-Design

Universities and Councils often operate in silos, missing opportunities to leverage local student talent for public infrastructure. In the “Knowledge Precinct” of Sippy Downs, the Sunshine Coast Council sought to bridge this gap. The challenge was to move beyond theoretical student projects and deliver a rigorous, industry-standard design process for a high-profile public asset, the Sippy Downs Entry Statement. This required a structured interface between academic inquiry and the technical realities of municipal infrastructure delivery.

Nambour Public Art: Strategic Creative Infrastructure for CBD Renewal

Nambour’s CBD faced significant perception challenges. Key transit corridors, particularly the pedestrian tunnel connecting the train station to the civic precinct, were viewed as unsafe and unwelcoming. Furthermore, the precinct suffered from poor legibility; essential amenities like the public elevator were “hidden” behind blank façades, confusing visitors. The challenge was to use creative interventions not merely for beautification, but as a functional tool to solve these Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) and wayfinding issues.

Creative Wayfinding Signage: Sandgate Kids Childcare Centre

Navigating a facility that has expanded organically over years of renovations often results in a disjointed and confusing user experience. Sandgate Kids faced this specific challenge: a complex layout of distinct care zones, staff areas, and administration offices that made navigation difficult. The objective was to untangle this spatial complexity, ensuring parents often time-poor and rushing during drop-offs, could intuitively find their destination. The solution needed to balance clarity with the centre’s playful brand identity.

Sunshine Beach Masterplan: Strategic Placemaking for Village Identity

Sunshine Beach is one of Queensland’s most distinctive coastal villages, defined by a tight-knit community and a protective “surfers’ enclave” identity. When the Sunshine Coast Regional Council (now Noosa Council) identified the village’s central park for a major revitalisation, the risk of community pushback was high. The challenge was to deliver necessary amenity upgrades seating, landscape, and shade without imposing a generic “urban” aesthetic that would clash with the existing village character. The project required a strategy that went beyond standard consultation to create cultural connection.