Team

Alex Longley

Managing Director

Alex founded Arcadia in 2011 to establish a landscape firm that is driven to create world-class landscape outcomes. His passion for connecting people with the landscape, and his longstanding industry relationships built on his ability to deliver exceptional projects, have helped Arcadia become one of the leading landscape architecture firms in Sydney. Also key to Arcadia’s success is the way Alex’s belief in nurturing team development has built a talented team within a collaborative workplace environment. Alex has provided the inspiration for a unique studio culture, including Friday BBQs on the deck, the annual ski trip and Arcadia’s famous Christmas parties. 

Michael Barnett

Managing Director

Mike became a Principal of Arcadia in 2014 bringing an ability to create authentic and compelling open spaces. Mike excels at challenging the process and driving the team to deliver rigor and detail in their work. This results in project outcomes that exceed client expectations, strengthening Arcadia’s reputation for delivery of quality projects. Mike’s an adventurer at heart – whether you find him snow-boarding, on his motorbike or exploring Sydney’s newest open spaces with his family, you can be sure he’s finding inspiration for his innovative designs.

Chris Tidswell

Director and Major Projects Lead

With a passion for designing memorable places, Chris’ approach is always specific to the site, creating a narrative to support the place and experience.His multidisciplinary qualifications allow him to provide extensive knowledge to create high quality designs in the public realm. He has Landscape and Architectural Masters Qualifications that are accompanied by a Project Management qualification, giving him a well-balanced and complementary skillset to deliver a market leading approach to Urban Design and Landscape Architecture.

Nathan Clausen

Studio Lead - Brisbane

Excited by the opportunities to help shape public domain in Brisbane, Nathan has been leading the Arcadia Brisbane studio since it was established in 2018. With a passion for designing inspirational places that activate and invigorate spaces for people to enjoy, Nathan has led the team to deliver imaginative, intelligent and client-focused design solutions in sectors as diverse as public realm, residential, retail, health, aged care retirement living, infrastructure, sport and recreation and education.

Nelson Gomes

Studio Lead - Melbourne

With a passion for city-shaping projects and a love for design, Nelson has used his people-centric, collaborative and innovative design style to lead some of Melbourne’s most high-profile landscape architecture projects in recent years. His extensive experience across all project delivery stages and working in a range of scenarios, uniquely positions him to lead Arcadia’s Melbourne studio.

Mitchell Audsley

Studio Lead - Canberra

Born and bred in Canberra, Mitchell has returned to his hometown to lead the Arcadia Canberra studio. Mitchell specialises in multidisciplinary projects, with the vision to deliver functional and invigorating spaces which showcase his attention to detail through high-quality outcomes. With a keen interest in sustainability and horticulture, Mitchell not only aims to integrate these to optimise the user experience in his designs, he also spends any free time he has digging, planting, and tending the chooks creating his own productive garden. Lucky Canberra team to share in the yield from his garden!

Dan Rimes

Studio Lead - Gold Coast

Dan is an acclaimed Landscape Architect renowned for his exceptional outdoor environments. With a focus on enhancing overall well-being, he specialises in designing immersive spaces that foster a profound connection with nature. An active advocate for outdoor education, Dan’s designs seamlessly incorporate elements of play, adventure, and curiosity, where he excels in creating inclusive playgrounds that facilitate diverse learning experiences. By seamlessly blending aesthetic appeal with project objectives, Dan personally leads every design endeavour with unwavering confidence and expertise. He is a registered Landscape Architect with the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, ensuring the highest level of professionalism and quality in his work.

Mike Thomas

Studio Lead - Auckland

With nearly 30 years of experience as a consulting Landscape Architect, Mike has worked across New Zealand, Hong Kong, China, and Australia, bringing a global perspective to his practice. He has a proven track record in the design and delivery of human-scale urban regeneration projects that are engaging, authentic, and deeply connected to natural systems and processes. Throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, Mike has established a legacy of transformative projects that have enhanced social engagement and driven commercial vitality, through close collaboration with Mana Whenua and local communities.

Mike possesses extensive expertise in the master planning of transport systems and public open spaces, seamlessly integrating high-level strategic vision with the detailed design of furnishings, structures, plantings, and surface finishes. His approach to design is distinguished by a strong emphasis on context, collaboration, and attentive listening – ensuring that each project is uniquely tailored with a genuine and meaningful sense of place.

Jamie Franklin

Studio Lead - Sunshine Coast

Jamie is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) with more than 30 years’ experience, he brings a track record of directing large, multidisciplinary consultant and stakeholder teams across complex city-shaping programs, major public realm precincts and infrastructure-led revitalisation projects.

He has led some of the region’s most significant place-making projects, including the $100 million Mooloolaba Placemaking Master Plan and Foreshore Revitalisation, winner of nine industry awards and the $17 million Sunshine Coast Mountain Bike Centre, currently under development for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. He is Chair of AILA Sunshine Coast and is a former Vice President of AILA Queensland.

Nicole Wilson

Principal - Sydney

If we could bottle and sell Nicole’s energy and her adventurous spirit, we’d be millionaires! If she’s not in the studio inspiring our teams to create world-class landscapes, she’s motoX riding with her boys, riding her Harley Davidson or embracing life on the sidelines as a footy mum. With over 15 years of diverse local and international experience, she has a considered design approach to every project she undertakes. Whether it’s a neighbourhood park for families to gather, or a village square with the flexibility to host events and pop-ups; Nicole’s desired outcome is a project which offers something for everyone. She believes that great design outcomes always stem from the collaboration of many minds. To have the opportunity to come together and generate innovative ways to solve even the most complex urban issues; the end result is always a project outcome that is thoughtful, resilient and enduring. There’s nothing more rewarding than creating new landscapes “that just work”.

Ben Newell

Principal - Brisbane

With 20 years of experience as designer and project manager, Ben has led multidisciplinary teams providing integrated, broad-based solutions on complex design and planning projects. After a childhood of cold Canberra winters it’s hardly surprising that Ben has embraced the laidback tropical lifestyle of Brisbane and a love of outdoor spaces. Designing high-end, sustainable and meaningful public realm & open spaces has become a passion for Ben, to the point where he spends his holidays photographing open spaces. Either that or indulging in his obsession with muscle cars!

Andrew Ewington

Principal - Sydney

Andrew’s passion for the intricacies of detailed design and the finishing touches on projects, is evident in the successful delivery of landmark landscape developments across New South Wales. With extensive experience leading large, complex projects with diverse stakeholders, his work spans urban design, open space, recreation, education, institutional, and residential sectors. A registered Landscape Architect, Andrew specialises in design development, documentation, technical direction, and construction-phase services for large-scale, integrated urban design projects.

Jason Kocmar

Principal - Canberra

Jason Kocmar is a Senior Associate Landscape Architect with more than 15 years experience working across broad range of landscape and urban design projects in ACT, NSW and USA. Prior to joining Arcadia, Jason was part of a multi-disciplinary firm in Tennessee, where he gained a new perspective on landscape design and how people interact with the built environment.

Jason has a passion for designing active public spaces coupled with a knowledge of how to create distinct and personable human experiences. A steward of the environment, Jason is proficient in Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD), and understands how to get the most out of tough urban environments. His extensive knowledge spans concept development, documentation, and construction management across various design scales including mixed-use, residential, seniors living, open space, WSUD, stormwater management and major infrastructure projects.

Jack Stevenson

Principal - Newcastle

With more than 13 years of Australian and international industry experience, Jack has a passion for design and creative problem solving. His distinctive approach to concept-driven practice, underpinned by his meticulous research, consistently delivers designs that are engaging and unique. Jack’s design ethos is driven by the desire to develop spaces that are sustainable, adaptive and encourage meaningful interaction between people and the environment.

Kathleen Selle

Principal - Urban Design

Kathleen’s work is grounded in creating inclusive, resilient and context-responsive places that enhance everyday urban life. She brings a holistic approach to urban design, balancing environmental, social and economic considerations, and ensuring development contributes positively to local identity, community health and well-being, public realm quality and a strong sense of place. With a strong professional focus on community engagement and place activation, Kathleen believes meaningful participation leads to better, more enduring urban outcomes. She has extensive experience in activation and regeneration strategies that support vibrant, adaptable and socially connected public spaces.

Daniel Byrne

Chief Financial Officer

Lisa Rota

Head of People and Culture

Lisa brings over 15 years of experience in people and culture, with a strong focus on translating people strategy into tangible business outcomes. Throughout her career, she has partnered with leaders to navigate growth and change, including organisational redesign, leadership development, succession planning, and the creation of frameworks that align culture with performance.

She is particularly motivated by building environments where people strategies meaningfully support business success. Passionate about developing talent and enabling career growth, Lisa operates as a trusted and strategic business partner.

Garvan O’Gara

Director of Operations

Garvan O’Gara is Arcadia’s Director of Operations, bringing more than 25 years of experience across some of Australia’s leading architecture and design practices. His experience spans architecture, landscape architecture, urban design and interior design, with a strong focus on leading multidisciplinary teams and building high-performing design practices.

Equally comfortable in the boardroom and on the studio floor, Garvan works alongside design leaders to strengthen the systems, structures and operational platforms that support creative businesses to grow. At Arcadia, he plays a key role in supporting the practice’s continued growth, helping create the conditions for great people and design to succeed while enabling the studios to deliver exceptional outcomes for clients and communities.

Ruth Bartlet-Pullen

Commercial and Business Lead

Ruth brings more than 20 years of industry experience to the team, applying her considered approach to Arcadia’s overall business strategy. A former architect, Ruth has built and maintained strong relationships with clients, partners, and stakeholders and is responsible for developing strategic initiatives to grow the business, ensuring the Arcadia’s competitive presence in the market. 

Johnny Bridges

First Nations Design Director

Johnny is a Ngunnawal man and senior cultural and creative leader working at the intersection of Indigenous perspectives, public storytelling, and contemporary design. For over 25 years, he has led creative and cultural programs across fashion, media, public art, infrastructure, and national identity. This includes senior leadership roles across the Asia Pacific region and, more recently, work focused on Indigenous-led cultural practice in Australia. Johnny’s work centres on Designing with Country as a curatorial and strategic approach. This is grounded in collaboration, respect for cultural authority, and working alongside Traditional Custodians, knowledge holders, artists, and communities to ensure stories are developed and shared with care and integrity.

Johnny is known for facilitating cultural frameworks, curatorial thinking, and large-scale public-facing projects across infrastructure, placemaking, identity, and storytelling.  His focus is on stewardship, process, and creating the conditions for Indigenous knowledge to be engaged appropriately within contemporary and institutional contexts.

Sherwin Espejo

Digital Design Lead

In response to the escalating complexity of the industry, both in terms of scale and organization, Sherwin has adopted a critical approach, immersing myself in the latest BIM/VDC principles and digital tools. This has enabled him to streamline workflows, enhancing speed, accuracy, and efficiency across all stakeholders. His involvement spans various phases and sectors of the building industry, from design to construction, from conventional methods to Prefabricated Pre-finish Volumetric Construction (PPVC), and from large-scale building developments to landscape and public domain projects.

Daniel Drummond

Senior Associate

Annabel Lydon

Senior Associate

With over seven years of industry experience, Annabel has developed a considered approach to design, always being mindful of the users that will visit the spaces and the impact it will have on their lives. She is particularly invested in creating enjoyable and inviting spaces that encourage people of all abilities and ages to engage with the natural environment.

Daniel Spicer

Senior Associate

Over more than five years at Arcadia, Daniel has worked on projects of all sizes, using his strong skills for communication and innovation to successfully collaborate on multidisciplinary teams. Recent projects include State Significant and city-shaping public domain projects, working in complex packages. He is experienced in using cultural engagement to create spaces with a unique design narrative.

Daniel is passionate about designing organic, multi-functional and unique spaces within the landscape, focusing on the permeability of activity. A strong believer in referencing the natural landscape into each of his designs, Daniel contributes meaningful spaces within the built environment, striving for unique and collaborative spaces that improve the relationship between the user and landscape.

Oliver Ju

Senior Associate

Oliver is a landscape architect and urban designer with nearly a decade of experience across a wide range of projects from major civic landscapes to urban design, masterplans and public domain projects. Alongside his diverse Australian portfolio, he has also delivered significant landscape and urban design projects in China.

With a background in both landscape and urban design, Oliver’s approach bridges creative vision with technical precision, shaping complex urban environments that remain deeply human and connected to place. He thrives in collaborative, multidisciplinary settings and brings strong experience in coordination, design development, and delivery.

Oliver is passionate about design excellence, mentoring emerging designers, and exploring how landscape can foster meaningful connections between people, culture, and environment

Katie Williams

Senior Associate

With over 20 years of experience in urban design and landscape architecture, Katie has worked extensively across both the private and public sectors in Australia, the UAE and the United States. She has successfully designed, managed and led projects of varying scale and complexity, spanning public realm design, park and precinct master planning, integrated transport and strategy development, as well as nature-based tourism.

Katie is passionate about delivering sustainable outcomes through enhanced biodiversity and blue-green infrastructure, bringing valuable leadership, technical expertise and strong stakeholder engagement to the team.

Lachlan McNab

Senior Associate

Lachlan is a Senior Associate with extensive experience leading complex public domain and interdisciplinary projects. His work, throughout Australia and Europe, features a strong focus on delivering high-quality, landscape-led outcomes that respond to context, stakeholder needs and the evolving demands of the built environment.

He brings a collaborative approach to design, working closely with government clients, consultants and multidisciplinary teams to navigate complexity and achieve integrated project outcomes. His approach is grounded in a passion for both design and construction, with a particular interest in the intersection of creative vision, technical rigour and effective project delivery.

Jon Fleri

Senior Associate

Jon Fleri is a Senior Associate with over a decade of experience in the landscape architecture industry, Jon has contributed to an extensive portfolio spanning health, education, aged care, residential and infrastructure. As the lead landscape architect, he has guided numerous complex projects, overseeing every stage of delivery from early concept development to construction completion.

Jon specialises in the integration of planting within and around built environments, delivering carefully considered design outcomes that enhance experiences for people, flora and fauna. His pragmatic yet insightful design approach allows him to identify value‑adding opportunities across all project stages. With a strong sensitivity to the environmental and contextual drivers of each project, Jon consistently delivers meaningful landscape solutions, aligned with the long‑term aspirations of clients and end users.

Ryan Lewis

Senior Associate

Ryan is a design-driven landscape architect whose broad skillset has been shaped by work across Australia and Europe. His portfolio spans public domain upgrades, open-space strategies to delivering detailed design and construction outcomes informed by a strong understanding of place, spatial systems, natural environmental systems and contemporary design practices.

He approaches design with a distinctly collaborative mindset, ensuring that multidisciplinary input and stakeholder perspectives are integrated throughout the project, from inception to delivery. Recognised for inventive problem-solving, technical precision and a commitment to sustainability, he produces context-responsive outcomes that balance project objectives with community aspirations and environmental performance.

Ryan’s work is grounded in the belief that well-designed public spaces are central to shaping sustainable, connected, liveable and resilient communities.

Simon Jones

Senior Associate

Simon has over twenty years experience as a landscape architect and project manager working on a broad range of projects across conservation, tourism, community facilities, residential development and infrastructure planning. Simon’s work has primarily been in regional Victoria and New South Wales with a focus on improving environmental outcomes and ensuring engaging and sustainable outcomes are achieved for every project.

Passionate about creating meaningful connections between people and place, he has successfully delivered a diverse range of projects including nature-based experiences, streetscapes, playgrounds, sporting precincts, residential developments and renewable energy facilities.

Simon also brings extensive experience in environmental planning and masterplanning, helping guide investment in community infrastructure, open space networks and environmental assets.

Annabel Lewis

Associate

Let’s get the obvious out of the way – Annabel’s amazing hair! The hair that was voted runner up in Schwarzkopf’s Most Beautiful Hair competition in 2013 is the first thing we all notice about Annabel. Beyond the mane is a former rural resident who cares deeply about creating drought tolerant, sustainable landscapes. She’s also strongly drawn to education-based projects and loves to draw on the experience of her teacher parents to gain insights for her designs. Annabel’s weekends are filled with bushwalks, country visits and sharing food and wine with friends.

Surong Sun

Associate

Surong is a highly experienced registered landscape architect (AILA) with fifteen years of experience across Australia, Middle East and China. She has been involved in many awarded projects ranging from play spaces, education spaces, public domain landscapes and masterplans. With fundamental interests and knowledge in the postindustrial landscape, infrastructure integration, Indigenous landscape, environmental urbanism, and water-sensitive urban design, Surong has worked on projects at multiple scales, seeing projects through from conception to construction.

Lorena Morgia

Associate

Lorena has over 20 years of experience delivering projects internationally and across Australia. She has played a key role in providing quality design and documentation for a diverse range of project typologies spanning mixed use, residential, defence, education, heritage, infrastructure, hospitals, aged care, retirement, and public realm.

While working in Singapore for eight years, Lorena was involved in major projects across South East Asia, China and the Middle East. Her extensive graphic, design and technical skills along with her meticulous nature ensures high quality assurance for every project assigned to her.

Lorena is passionate about designing landscape spaces that ensures an enduring positive impact to the health and wellbeing of end users.

Han Chen

Associate

Han is a strong advocate for evidence‑based design. He thrives on creating landscapes that benefit the urban environment and the people who experience it. He has worked across a broad range of project typologies and scales from concept design to implementation. With each project, he seeks to create public spaces that facilitate sustainable connections between its people and place.

Han is passionate about bringing human experience and scale to the forefront of landscape design. He believes a good landscape design should promote social interaction and transform our cities into more diverse, inclusive, and engaging places.

Nicholas Lesiuk

Associate

Nic is an Associate with diverse experience delivering a range of public domain and landscape projects. His strength lies in a critical architectural understanding that fosters a deep awareness of the relationship between natural and built environments. This ‘big picture’ thinking informs his approach to landscape design, balancing environmental sensitivity, human scale, and spatial experience across projects of all scales.

With a background in high-end construction, Nic has led the delivery of high-quality, distinctive designs. This hands-on experience has equipped him with valuable insight into how design concepts translate into built form, and a solid understanding of the collaborative roles required throughout the construction process. Nic combines thoughtful design thinking with on-site experience, driven by a passion for people, place, and the refinement of detail from concept through to construction.

Ruiqi Shen

Associate

Ruiqi Shen has contributed to numerous landscape architecture and urban design projects spanning Australia and China. Engaging in every stage of project development, he predominantly operated within the private sector as a consultant and designer, collaborating with government agencies and real estate developers.

Ruiqi’s key areas of interest and expertise encompass Transitoriented Urban Design/Landscape Architecture, Place-making, Global Design Practice, and Computer-aided Design.

Rhys Probert

Associate

Rhys Probert is a Senior Landscape Architect based in the Canberra studio on Nugnnawal land. Rhys has experience in all aspects of landscape design from masterplanning and DA development through to construction documentation and surveillance. Over his career he has developed a strong background in 3D modelling and design documentation for projects of all scales, from small planting trials to large public domain and infrastructure works.

Yiling Jiang

Associate

Yiling is a Landscape Architect with more than five years of experience across Shanghai and Sydney. She has contributed to projects across a range of sectors, with a strong background in major infrastructure projects both locally and interstate.

Yiling holds a Master of Landscape Architecture and bachelor’s degrees in Architecture and Landscape Architecture from the University of Adelaide. Having lived and worked in both China and Australia, she brings a strong understanding of the cultural contexts of both countries. Her design approach is grounded in local culture and human-centred thinking, creating places that are meaningful, responsive and enduring.

Through her experience, Yiling has developed strong technical and project delivery skills, providing a solid foundation to work across all stages of landscape architecture and a diverse range of project types.

Saurabh Wagh

Associate

Saurabh is a Landscape Architect with over five years of experience in the architecture and planning industry. He has experience across all stages of landscape design, contributing to projects from concept design and visual impact assessment through to design development and documentation.

Throughout his career, Saurabh has developed strong technical skills in GIS mapping, visual impact assessment, 3D visualisation and the Adobe Creative Suite. He has contributed to the successful delivery of a diverse range of projects, applying thoughtful design solutions that enhance both the built and natural environment.

Saurabh is passionate about continually expanding his knowledge and exploring new techniques and technologies that strengthen design outcomes. He enjoys working collaboratively with clients, consultants and stakeholders to deliver landscapes that respond to project objectives while creating meaningful, high-quality places.

Katrina Duncan

Associate

Katrina Duncan is a landscape architect with a passion for creating places that strengthen the relationship between people and the natural environment. With more than 13 years of experience across public realm, education, health, recreation, and community projects, she brings a thoughtful and collaborative approach to design that balances ecological outcomes, cultural context, and human experience.

Her work is driven by a belief that well-designed landscapes can enhance biodiversity, improve wellbeing, and create lasting value for communities. From visioning and master planning through to detailed design and delivery, Katrina is committed to shaping resilient and meaningful environments that respond to both place and people.

Elaine Wang

Associate Urban Designer

Elaine Wang is an Associate Urban Designer with a solid foundation in architectural design and a proven track record in delivering transformative, sustainable urban projects. Her extensive expertise in master planning, built-form design, place-making and transit-oriented development (TOD), is underpinned by a human-centred approach to urban transformation.

With experience across diverse contexts, from metropolitan Australia to international projects in Thailand, Elaine is adept at creating innovative solutions tailored to the unique challenges of urbanisation across various cultural and environmental settings. Elaine’s brings a forward thinking approach, technical expertise and ability to lead complex, multidisciplinary projects.

Georgia Alexander

Associate

Georgia rejoins Arcadia after several years living and working in Hobart, Tasmania. She brings experience across a diverse range of residential, tourism, education, health and master planning projects. Originally from rural NSW, she has worked across both small regional studios and larger commercial practices, gaining an appreciation for different scales, contexts and communities.

Her approach to landscape is grounded in a strong connection to place, a passion for plants and a belief in creating spaces that are both considered and memorable. She is particularly interested in landscapes that connect people to their surroundings, bring communities together and support health and wellbeing and aims to use these principles as a key focus for her future work with the Arcadia team.

Matt Tancred

Landscape Construction Manager

With 30 years of industry experience, Matthew has built a reputation as a deeply passionate advocate for open spaces. With decades of structural landscaping experience, Matthew has worked across many roles within civil landscaping and construction. This diversity has led to a rare depth of skill and knowledge in delivering successful project outcomes.

Daniel Robinson

Talent Acquisition Partner

Daniel is Arcadia’s Talent Acquisition Partner, applying his seven years of recruitment experience to helping our business leaders build teams of the most talented and capable people in Australian landscape-led design.