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Australian women in urban planning occupy some of the most consequential seats in the built environment. They direct precinct plans for fast-growing outer suburbs, lead transport corridor policy at state level, and sit on the panels that decide whether major developments proceed. Their influence shows up in how streets are designed, where housing gets built, and which communities get infrastructure first.
The profession has shifted considerably over the past decade. Women now make up the majority of planning graduates at most Australian universities, and that pipeline is reaching senior roles. Still, leadership positions at the director and chief planner level remain male-heavy, particularly in state planning authorities and large private consultancies. The women below are closing that gap in practice, not just on paper.
Planners directing major public agencies
Natasha Palich is a senior planning officer at the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, where she has led assessment teams for state-significant developments across Western Sydney. Her work covers everything from logistics precincts to mixed-use corridors anchored by the new Sydney Metro stations.
Sue Morrison serves as Chief Planner at the ACT Planning Directorate, overseeing Canberra's district strategies and the territory's response to housing affordability pressure. Morrison has led the ACT's transition to a new planning system, one of the most substantial rewrites of planning law in the territory's history.
Julie Bindon is a director at the Queensland Department of State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning. Bindon has managed planning frameworks for regional Queensland, including coordination between local councils and state infrastructure agencies.
Practitioners leading major consultancies
Cathy Wilkinson is a principal planner at Arup in Melbourne, where she leads urban strategy projects for both government and private sector clients. Her recent work has focused on 15-minute city frameworks for middle-ring suburbs and integrated transport and land-use planning in the western growth corridor.
Renee Leung is a director at Urbis, specialising in planning assessment and urban design for mixed-use and residential developments in NSW. Leung regularly appears before the NSW Land and Environment Court and the Sydney Eastern City Planning Panel as an expert witness in planning matters.
Sarah Hill directs the planning practice at GHD Advisory in South Australia. Hill's team works across regional planning, housing policy, and precinct design, and she has advised multiple local councils on structure plans for growth areas north of Adelaide.
Local government leaders
Josephine Bennett is Director of City Planning at the City of Melbourne, responsible for the strategic planning decisions that govern Melbourne's CBD and inner suburbs. Bennett's division manages heritage overlays, building heights, public space strategy, and the statutory planning caseload for one of Australia's most contested planning jurisdictions.
Mia Murray leads planning and development at Moreton Bay City Council in Queensland, overseeing one of the fastest-growing local government areas in the country. Murray's team manages structure planning, development assessment, and infrastructure contributions for a region where population growth is running ahead of most projections.
Kerryn Cotter is Manager of Strategic Planning at the City of Fremantle, where she has driven the Fremantle Activity Centre Plan and the city's housing diversity strategy. Cotter works closely with the Western Australian Planning Commission on state-level density targets that affect how inner Fremantle redevelops.
Researchers and policy advocates
Dr. Nicole Gurran is a Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Sydney and one of Australia's most cited housing policy researchers. Gurran's work on housing affordability, short-term rental regulation, and suburban densification has directly informed federal and state housing policy debates. Her research reaches policymakers at every level of government.
Dr. Crystal Legacy is an Associate Professor at RMIT University's Centre for Urban Research, where she focuses on transport infrastructure governance and community participation in major projects. Legacy's research examines how decisions about freeways and rail corridors are made, and who gets left out of those processes.
Emma Rooksby is a senior researcher at the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), contributing to national research programs on planning systems, housing supply, and land use regulation. Rooksby's published work has examined planning approval timelines and their effect on housing delivery.
Why this list matters
Urban planning shapes daily life in ways most residents don't see. The decision to zone land for housing, to route a bus corridor, or to require ground-floor retail on a new building block comes from planners, not politicians. The women on this list make those decisions at scale, covering millions of square metres of Australian city every year.
Their work connects directly to affordability, liveability, and sustainability, three of the most contested policy debates in Australian cities right now. Readers interested in how those debates play out inside organisations can find useful context in coverage of Australian women in construction, whose work sits downstream of the planning decisions described here.
For readers tracking women who hold formal authority over major capital decisions, the broader picture of Australian women in infrastructure investing shows how the capital that funds the projects planners approve gets allocated.
The profession's next challenge is less about graduate numbers and more about who holds chief planner and director-general titles at state agencies. The women here are the most likely source of that next generation of leadership.