Here is another interesting wikipedia page of a concept called Participatory Budgeting. Don’t know if its implemented anywhere in Australia however, so no case studies comes to mind.
Participatory budgeting (PB) is a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making, and a type of participatory democracy, in which ordinary people decide how to allocate part of a municipal or public budget. Participatory budgeting allows citizens to identify, discuss, and prioritize public spending projects, and gives them the power to make real decisions about how money is spent.