Paul Memmott's early studies were in architecture and painting. His dual research interests during the 1970s, centred on the emerging discipline of person-environment relations and the use of space and place by Aboriginal people, and led him into the social anthropology of Aboriginal Australia. His doctorate examined the Properties of Place of the Lardil people of the Wellesley Islands in the Gulf of Carpentaria. By the early 1980s Paul was professionally qualified and practicing as both an architect and anthropologist, and diverging into allied areas such as settlement planning, social planning, strategic and management planning, social issue analysis, Aboriginal social organisation and land tenure.

Throughout his professional career, Dr Memmott has reapplied his knowledge into teaching and publishing papers and books. By the early 1990s, he held Honorary Reader status at the Departments of Architecture in both Queensland and Sydney Universities. The nature and success of the consulting practice is based on the key role Aboriginal people play as consultants and fieldwork operatives.