POMO Community Engagement Consultants Melbourne

POMO. Community Engagement Consultants

POMO are award winning placemaking consultants with offices in Melbourne and Queensland.

As a specialist placemaking practice, we have been involved in a range of community and stakeholder engagement processes for local government. We work in close collaboration with our engagement partners Fourfold Studio.

We have a community engagement process that:

Brings people together around a shared vision whether this be community members or internal stakeholders
Uses place narratives, culture and place identity to develop unique “people and place” focused outcomes
Collaboratively develops the engagement program with our clients, and where relevant, threads those engagement outcomes through a design and delivery process and into tangible outcomes

We can be engaged directly by local government or via Vendor Panel (search The Trustee for The Burton Family Trust) or through Local Buy. Often we work as sub consultants as part of larger teams led by other urban design professionals.

We have received a number of state and national awards, we are driven to create long term relationships, we are easy to work with and we have a common sense and flexible working style.

What We Do

Our process for creating unique artistic urban outcomes

About POMO

Number of Awards Since 2016

We have received state, national and international awards in a number of categories ranging from design to community benefit. This means our work is peer recognised and consistently represents best practice over many years.

Locations in Australia

We have offices in Sunshine Melbourne and Nambour Queensland but work anywhere in Australia.

20+

Years of Experience

Founded in 1997 we have delivered hundreds of successful design projects.

Placemaking Projects

Mackay Place Strategy

This project is currently underway in 2025 and is a collaboration between POMO and Fourfold Studio using Fourfold’s community engagement methodology.

Dandenong Community Engagement

This project is currently underway in 2025 and is a collaboration between POMO and Fourfold Studio.

The team was engaged by the City of Greater Dandenong to run a targeted community engagement process. This engagement will result in the identification of locations, community champions and ideas for community-led interventions in various public places in the CBD.

Community Led Place Strategy

POMO led a process with a small group of passionate professionals and community members to create solutions to problems in the town of Nambour.

At the time, the community was frustrated by a lack of vision, a lack of action and a lack of cohesion around the way forward.

The team created a strategic vision for Nambour which unified the community, inspired local government and represented a 100% authentic 100% bottom up approach driven by the idea that the people who are most directly affected by a town’s problems are the best people to generate solutions.

Miles Streetscape

POMO was engaged to collaborate with FourFold Studio and Vee Design in the revitalisation of the main street in Miles Western Queensland. Our role was to delve in the cultural history of the town and then design a number of bespoke creative elements in the landscape that express the uniqueness of the town.

Dura Gunga Sculpture

Dura Gunga by Lyndon Davis is an important First Nation artwork that was unveiled at the entrance to City Hall Maroochydore by the Sunshine Coast Council. POMO has been working secretly on this project in 2023/24 with local First Nations artist Lyndon Davis.

Palmwoods Town Square

Working with the landscape design team POMO were able to create a number of key design initiatives that would contribute to the locally inspired placemaking program and deliver on practical community needs.

POMO was engaged to design and construct a number of landscape elements. Each element was custom designed and born from the uniqueness of Palmwoods, they reference local history, using locally sourced materials and were being made collaboratively with local craftspeople and artisans.

Underlying this was a larger design and management process run by POMO involving construction design, design reporting, engineering certification, construction and project management and installation on-site. A true multidisciplinary and multi-skilled program with a wide range of stakeholders and projects participants.

The project won the Excellence Award at the 2018 Queensland AILA awards for Civic Design. It also won gold in the same category at the national awards.

Nambour CBD Creative Renewal Program

Through a grant from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts POMO was engaged to deliver a city-wide creative placemaking renewal program in the Nambour CBD. The aim of the project was to creatively enhance the town’s night time appeal, encourage foot traffic and visitation.

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

This project involved the design and delivery of a series of specialist coloured lights in a public park. The park is used by community groups for a range of purposes and they had a desire to improve the night time appeal through lighting.
POMO carried out schematic and detailed design of the lighting works and integrated an existing council-sponsored upgrade with this community program for maximum efficiencies.

Gold Coast Light Rail

Stage 3 of the Gold Coast Light Rail is under construction in 2024. POMO worked alongside AECOM on the design of this major infrastructure project, handling the placemaking design.
The project focused on opportunities for bespoke place-driven interventions at each of the platform stations along the route.
We began with a detailed analysis of the areas through which the light rail would move and began to unlock cultural histories, local stories, imagery and assembled a report which identified key narratives and history from each area.

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 Placemaking

This project was commissioned by the Brisbane City Council and involved creative programming of a community engagement event. The event was designed as an opportunity for the local community to have their say on proposed designs for a public space upgrade. The space was situated in front of a group of shops and a cafe and currently being used for car parking. This was a classic case of pirioritisation of motor vehicles over people and council had prepared a urban design response to reclaim the space for community use.

Understanding & Applying Place Character

The Sunshine Coast Urban Corridor

Its not everyday that we can lay claim to a world first but as far as we know this is the first report of its kind in the world. So what is it exactly?

Mooloolaba Concept Design

Creative Placemaking Design for the redevelopment of Mooloolaba Foreshore

We were asked to create a series of place-driven design concepts that would tie in with the landscape design of the Mooloolaba Foreshore. These concepts took everyday objects and elements that were to appear in the revitalisation and applied a place-driven artistic lens to their design. This process occurred after a place analysis was conducted and local themes and narratives were identified for expression.

Nambour Placemaking Analysis

This report analyses the unique place context for a city wide urban renewal design process in the town of Nambour Queensland.

This document, running to 158 pages, offered the urban design team a detailed insight into the town so a revitalisation could be created in a way that was driven by Nambour’s unique qualities, represented its culture authentically and positioned it for future demographic changes.

Southport Broadwater Parklands Play Attractor

This project was unveiled in August 2022, having been in the making for over three years. POMO was first involved in the project before it was awarded, then involved in placemaking design and later delivery of a range of custom playground items.

Birtinya Library Placemaking Analysis

Birtinya Library & Arts Development Space Placemaking Analysis

The purpose of this project was to inform the architectural design team of the specific culture, identity and history of the Birtinya area so a design could be generated that was deeply connected to the place.

The report also laid the foundations for a series of short term concepts for activating the currently empty land before development.