Why local news matters

One story we enjoyed working on in 2025 was this video about fake grass in Chatswood. While the topic might not seem super serious, we think it matters. Here’s why.

At the surface level, this video asks a very simple question: Why is Chatswood so hot? 


The answer we gave in the video, though, draws on weeks of previous reporting on urban heat, city planning, thermal mass and tree canopy coverage. These can be quite complicated topics, and our goal — by framing the story around Chatswood — was to explain the facts in a way that was easily understood by the average viewer.

To illustrate the heat problem in Chatswood we spoke to experts and did temperature checks on concrete, asphalt, grass and astroturf that were all directly exposed to the sun.

The astroturf at Chatswood Concourse — which traps heat — became a focal point for the story, and followed on from previous reporting we’d done on community debate over fake grass being used on sporting fields.

Synthetic turf can elicit very strong views on the North Shore. 

On the upside, it is more hardy than grass, meaning it’s less likely sporting fixtures on astroturf will be cancelled after rain. But on the downside, it sheds material that ends up in waterways, and attracts heat: so much so that it can cause second and third degree burns.

A few weeks after our story was published, Willoughby Council set up umbrellas on the concourse, providing some shade. A councillor later said the Lorikeet’s story was a “game-changer”. 

While you might look at astroturf and think it’s not particularly newsworthy, in reporting this story, we saw an opportunity to start a serious conversation in our community about climate change and urban planning, in a way that simplified what could have been a fairly dry and data-heavy scientific story.

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