Catriona Tatam MPIA | President
Tatam Planning Co.
Catriona is the current President of the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) Northern Territory, and was previously the PIA NT President from 2019 to 2021.
Cat is a qualified Urban and Regional town planner and runs her own planning company Tatam Planning Co., which provides town planning, development feasibility and project management services across the Northern Territory and Northern Australia. Cat is able to leverage more than a decade’s planning experience in both private and public sectors across WA, QLD, NSW and the NT. Cat has been a proud Territorian for the past eight years, originally hailing from Perth, WA.
Cat was also the former Chief Executive Officer of the Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) Northern Territory (NT) from 2021-2023. As a passionate town planner, Cat has a keen interest in rural and remote community planning, strategic policy and procedures, and urban design.
Sabella Fuss MPIA | Vice-President
Masterplan
Sabella holds a Master of Urban and Regional Planning and joined MasterPlan’s Darwin office in 2023 after relocating to the Northern Territory from Queensland. She has worked in a range of roles in both public and private sectors predominantly in Queensland as well as some time in the UK.
Sabella’s approach to planning work is always informed by an awareness of the ‘big picture’ that each project or decision contributes to, and her desire to achieve good long-term outcomes for communities.
Sabella’s focus on working efficiently and achieving results is complemented by her experience in a range of planning work including integrated approvals for major infrastructure projects, strategic planning and policy drafting and local heritage assessments.
George Dakis PIA (Assoc.)
Masterplan
George Dakis is a qualified Urban and Regional Town Planner working for MasterPlan Darwin, NT. Within MasterPlan his primary focus is development feasibility and the preparation and management of development applications to obtain permit approvals for clients. George’s planning consultancy experience includes assisting NT local government councils with the assessment of planning applications.
George also holds qualifications in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and has significant GIS and cartographic experience working with the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics (DIPL) of the NT. He has worked on a myriad of projects and work programs within DIPL’s Survey Branch and Land Information Services. His cartographic experience includes maintenance of strategic plans to support DIPLs Lands Planning work programs.
George is committed to living and working in the NT and is dedicated to making the community better through careful, considered planning.
Chay Garde MPIA | NT Board Director
Northern Territory Government
Chay is the Northern Territory Board Director of the Planning Institute of Australia and currently works as Manager of Planning & Development (Southern Region) with the Northern Territory Government based in Alice Springs. In his current role, he leads both the Strategic Land Use Planning and Development Assessment functions in Central Australia’s urban centres and across the Territory’s vast and remote Southern region extending from Elliot in the North to the South Australian border.
Chay is an experienced urban and regional planner having worked in a variety of Planning, transport & infrastructure, and urban policy roles across all three levels of government in Australia. He worked in the former Commonwealth ‘Major Cities Unit’ (later becoming the ‘Planning Analysis’ branch of the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development) where he provided policy advice on national planning issues to the government and composed a collection of chapters for the State of Australian Cities Reports. Chay also worked on a variety of complex integrated transport and land use planning projects for the Queensland and Victorian State Governments and worked with the Brisbane City Council in both neighbourhood planning and development assessment roles.
He has also undertaken international development assignments overseas, working as a part of a team of built environment specialists responding to the aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in the Philippines and working with a Nepali not-for-profit local government association to advocate for and facilitate increased autonomy and local decision-making ability for remote communities.
Since moving to the NT Chay has become a passionate advocate to improve planning and development processes and outcomes across regional and remote Australia to help address social, economic, and environmental matters.
Cameron Judson MPIA
Upside Planning
I set up my planning consultancy in Katherine because it's a fascinating place as an Australian to learn about Australia, especially given I spent the majority of my career in London. The town also has a lot of great people, and my partner likes it here too. It's treated us well.
In my 13 years in London most of this time was at Jones Lang LaSalle, and over time I stepped up to be the firm's lead on economic and town centre impact. Sitting in the Planning and Development team, but integrated into the wider business, I advised government, global investors, developers, business and national retailers on retail and town centres, in particular how to create successful town centres that attract investment, spending, the community and visitors.
Sydney (my hometown) was my next destination, and the NSW Department of Education was my reintroduction to working in Australia. My planning, development, economic and commercial skills were recalibrated to manage a team to prepare strategic infrastructure plans to address an unprecedent uplift in demand. New schools, redevelopment and expansion being the core response, but we also directed a lot of energy in co-location and joint use with Council's, universities and the non-government sector. I also spent a lot of time talking to educators and preparing briefings for the Minister.
In January 2020 we (including the dog) arrived in Katherine. After a year the Department of Infrastructure Planning and Logistics I had learnt all I could. It was time to go back to a place where I could affect positive change, be part of interesting projects and be able satisfy my hunger to learn. Being part of the PIA NT Division Committee gives the chance bring my experience from the UK (I remain a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute) and elsewhere in Australian to improve outcomes for the NT.
Dr Chati Tasantab (PhD, MPhil, BSc) PIA (Assoc.)
Department of Health, Northern Territory Government
Dr Chati Tasantab holds a PhD in Disaster Management from the University of Newcastle, Australia, and MPhil Planning and BSc Human Settlement Planning from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana.
Chati currently is a Principal Policy Officer in Environmental Health at the Department of Health, Northern Territory Government. In this role, he develops policies and plans to facilitate preparedness for, response to and recovery from disasters and public health emergencies. He recently completed the development of Northern Territory’s Heatwave Management Plan and is spearheading its implementation to ensure adaptation to extreme heat. He is also affiliated to the University of Newcastle, Australia as a visiting academic affiliate. He was previously a sessional lecturer in Sustainable Development and Disaster Management at the same university.
In addition to his public policy work in disaster and emergency management, health impact assessment, human health adaptation to climate change, he also regularly collaborates with colleagues in Academia on research projects. Some of their recent research projects include mainstreaming climate change action into urban planning; addressing air pollution in African cities; and heat health resilience.
Chati regularly peer-reviews for international research journals such as Journal of Urban Affairs, MDPI Climate, MDPI Sustainability, Urban Planning, Heliyon, Environmental Hazards, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, and International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction.