Sometimes placemaking is small and temporary - like a pop-up, a trial or a community-led activity. Other times it’s long-term, shaping the future of a park, street or precinct. 

Placemaking helps us respond to these expectations in a more thoughtful way. Instead of assuming we know the answer, we start by listening. Instead of locking things in too early, we test ideas and learn from experience. 

Working closely with community has always been part of our role as a local government - and that hasn’t changed. 

What has changed is our decision to make this way of working more visible, consistent and supported. 

By bringing placemaking to the forefront - and creating a dedicated team to support it - we’re being more intentional about how we listen, how we involve community early, and how we shape places over time. 

Our place-based work is guided by a simple approach that helps us understand each community, listen to local voices and design actions that reflect local identity, strengths and needs. 

If you’d like to explore this in more detail, you can read more about Our Place Approach. 

Our Placemaking Team supports place-based work across the City by: 

The team works closely with community members, businesses, local groups and other City teams to help ideas move from conversation to action. 

The Placemaking Team can also help with: 

The Placemaking Team is a small, dedicated group of City staff who work alongside community, businesses, local groups and other City teams to support place-based work across Kalamunda. 

You’ll often find the team out in the community - listening, having conversations, supporting ideas and helping connect people with the right pathways. 

Their role isn’t to “own” places or decisions, but to help ideas move forward, support collaboration and make placemaking easier to do well.

If you’d like to learn more about the people behind the work, you can meet the Placemaking Team here. 

Placemaking works best when it’s shared. 

The City’s role is to support, coordinate and deliver where we can - and to advocate where things sit beyond our direct control. 

The community’s role is just as important: 

The placemaking spectrum helps explain the different ways the City and community can work together on place-based projects. 

It shows that not every project involves the same level of community involvement - and that’s okay. 

Some projects are: 

The spectrum helps set clear expectations about how decisions are made and what role the community can play in different situations. 

Over time, placemaking aims to move more work toward collaboration - but the right approach depends on the place, the project and what’s possible. 

👉 Placemaking spectrum

We’re always keen to hear ideas that help people connect, activate spaces or make places more welcoming. 

Ideas might be: 

Not every idea will be possible straight away - but we’ll always be open and honest about what’s feasible, why, and what the next steps could be. 

Placemaking is used by local governments around the world to improve how places work for people. 

If you’d like to explore the idea further, this short explainer provides a helpful overview of placemaking principles in a local government context. 

Our approach at the City of Kalamunda is tailored to our local community, responsibilities and governance - but this resource can be useful if you’re interested in learning more. 

👉 Learn more about placemaking