Pollen Studio

We’re excited to share some recently-drawn ‘before and after’ perspectives, envisioning the renaturalisation of Bendigo Creek.

The Yaram Yaram Bayikina project (translating to “Bendigo Creek – reawakening it”) focues on reintroducing habitat through environmental restoration and creek renaturalisation - seeing waterways as vital ecological corridors that change the experience of these local neighbourhoods. Extensive planting, creek crossings and stepping stones encourage pause, play and exploration. Daylighting and treating stormwater before it enters the creek helps to improve water quality and build knowledge around waterways. The project foregrounds Djaara cultural values and their fundamental connection to these places.

Working within a multidisciplinary team alongside DesignFlow (lead consultant) and RAIN Consulting (flood and hydraulic engineers), the project involves collaboration between the City of Greater Bendigo, Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation and the North Central Catchment Management Authority, with extensive wider community consultation and the involvement of Dja Dja Wurrung water knowledge holders, Kapa Gatjin Wartaka, at every step of the way.

Check out these Concepts further for these three locations (Bendigo Creek, Back Creek and Long Gully) and have your say at the ‘Let’s Talk Greater Bendigo’ website at https://letstalkgreaterbendigo.com.au.

Some more recent snaps of our construction site visit to the Southern Wetlands at Yalukit Willam Nature Reserve. We also wandered through the beautifully established Chain of Ponds to the north, overflowing with its rambunctious planting and teeming with life – a landscape that the Southern Wetlands, once a monocultural swathe of golf course kikuyu, will one day resemble and integrate into seamlessly.

Unlike many other types of outcomes in the built environment, landscape architecture often gets better and better with time; we love watching projects age and patina with growing plants and ecology, evolves microclimates, and patterns of human/non-human use. Watch this space (over many years!)

Some details from Flynn and Liv’s recent construction site visit to a project we’ve loved working on for the past couple of years. The transformed Yalukit Willam Nature Reserve from golf course to significant wetland is almost ready to let visitors back in. We had a great time exploring stepping stone crossings, peeking through the bird hide, and checking out the brand-spanking new shelters.

Sometimes it’s the moments you didn’t design that bring the most joy when you discover them on site - we particularly loved some little birds’ contributions to the concrete path.

More to come…

Cheltenham Recreation Reserve is now open! As a project designed with a lot of joy and playfulness, it’s been heartwarming to see how much the community love this space already, including such a large turnout on Opening Day! The restored steamroller, relocated Cheltenham train station building, misters, and tree-top skywalk have all been a huge hit. We’re proud of how the new space nestles into all the existing mature trees on site, including one growing through the roof of the relocated building.

Swipe for some ‘before’ shots at the end to see the transformation.

Waterways around Bendigo are about to transform and re-emerge.

Currently a vast corridor of concrete channels, expansive lawns and some very beautiful trees, these spaces will soon flow freely with abundant wildness, water, and special moments for humans.

Here are a few snaps from our recent site visit out in the mist, rain and sunshine. We couldn’t be more excited to be a part of this very special rewilding and renaturalisation project starting to unfold on Dja Dja Wurrung Country.

Watch this (flood) zone...

This fun little upgrade at Dendy Park South Playground has exploded into life! We had so much fun turning the enormous mound on site into a volcano, creating a ‘Floor is Lava’ game, and giving this existing playspace some new life with the Bayside City Council team. 🌋

This was a great opportunity to renew a site with thoughtful, minimal interventions. The project focused on upgrading a surface that had reached the end of its life, enhancing accessibility and gathering nodes, as well as adding an extra layer of imagination play to the playspace without needing to replace any of the existing equipment. Swipe through for a mix of in-progress and finished photos - check out Yellowstone Resource Group as well for some extra project snaps.

Part 2 of the Victoria Street Activations journey. Last week, the Melbourne Pollen team were lucky enough to be out on site planting the streetscape corners of both Charles and Park St with some new life, putting our own hands and planting plans to the test.

It’s not every day we get to be on site installing what we’ve designed, and interacting with passersby and seeing the joy that it brought was a particular highlight! Thanks again to the outstanding assistance from Practical_Beekeeper and Neil Tait.

It’s not every day we actually get to build and install what we’ve designed. Flynn has been busy out on site in Richmond at Victoria Street (and organising bits and pieces further afield) to prepare and activate these little streetscape corners.

Swipe to see Part 1 of the journey: creating and painting steel edges, loading up plants from the nursery, and freeing up an existing olive tree from its bluestone surrounds. This project couldn’t have happened without the hands-on assistance from Practical_Beekeeper and Neil Tait.

More to come…

We’re excited to share that Moubray Street Community Park was awarded a commendation in the Jury’s awards for excellence in Urban Design, at the City of Port Phillip Design and Development Awards 2026. It’s always great to see the strong impact one small stretch of road can have when prioritised for people instead of cars, and transformed into a meaningful community place for the adjacent school and surrounding humans.

Dear future Pollinator,

We’ve been waiting for you to join our team.

We are a medium-sized, carbon-neutral studio of landscape architects on a mission to keep making the world a greener place. We have a library of exciting projects on the go — local parks, large nature reserves, schools, rural and urban adventures alike… and we’re after a passionate someone to grow them with us.

We work as a team across all phases of our projects. Our process involves using a mix of hand drawing, Vectorworks, the Adobe suite, and sometimes exploring emerging technologies.

Our team is passionate about listening to and learning from Country, our clients, working on projects that we believe in, and helping people to fall in love with their environment.

We’re looking for someone who’s thoughtful, kind, curious, creative, and interested in working with a wide range of tools. Someone who wants to listen to and help communities and ecologies. We hope to nourish your love for plants, people, documentation, and environmental design of all sorts.

We’re looking for a full-time, qualified Landscape Architect based in Melbourne/Vic and able to come into our beautiful office at Balam Balam Place a few days a week. Preferably, you will have around 4 years of experience; more recent graduates may also be considered.

Please send us your CV and portfolio of work that you’d like to walk us through. We’d love to see work that you’re proud of, that has challenged you, maybe even something that failed, and to hear all about your superpowers.

Reach out at [email protected] by May 16th, 5pm if you feel like this could be you.