Simon McCarthy
Simon McCarthy traces how housing, infrastructure and everyday urban life intersect, reporting real estate and local development stories for the Newcastle Herald. He works as a digital journalist, combining traditional reporting with photography, video and multimedia packages. His coverage sits at the junction of the property market, civic projects and the community routines that unfold around them.
Housing and state significant development
McCarthy's real estate reporting focuses on large-scale housing proposals and how they slot into broader plans to increase dwelling supply. In coverage such as his piece on the renewed push for new homes through two state significant developments in Newcastle, he tracks how planning pathways and government designations shape the pace of construction. He tends to frame projects in terms of both their built form and their impact on surrounding streets, services and neighbourhood character.
His stories draw connections between developer ambitions, regulatory processes and the everyday need for more homes, rather than treating property solely as a financial market.
Built heritage, public spaces and infrastructure
Beyond new housing, McCarthy often reports on the structures and public spaces that define the city’s identity, especially when they face change or preservation battles. His coverage of the Newcastle Ocean Baths being added to a state heritage register follows community campaigns, regulatory decisions and the practical implications of heritage status for future upgrades. Stories on the delicate relocation of sea hares to reopen Merewether Ocean Baths and on major car rallies show a consistent interest in how infrastructure, environmental conditions and recreation intersect.
He uses these assignments to explain why upgrades, closures or registrations matter for residents, foregrounding accessibility, safety and the continuity of shared places.
Community features and visual coverage
McCarthy frequently turns real estate and infrastructure assignments into broader community features, drawing out the people and routines behind the locations he covers. Photo-led pieces from events such as the Hunter Rescue Ball or local motoring gatherings highlight his use of galleries and visual storytelling to situate readers inside civic and social occasions. He has reported on former racing greyhounds finding new homes, weather disruptions such as fog delaying flights, and new transport services connecting local travellers to other destinations. These stories reflect a reporter who treats houses, venues and transport systems as stages for human stories, not just assets or logistical details.
Digital reporting, arts and investigations
McCarthy works as a digital journalist, producing stories, video and multimedia packages for the Newcastle Herald and its weekend magazine. He co-produces the Toohey’s News podcast, extending his reporting into audio formats on local issues and personalities. His bylines span investigations, history features and arts reviews, including work on foster care shortages in the Kids in Crisis series, coverage of the Newcastle Ocean Baths heritage listing, and criticism of musical theatre grounded in cafe culture.
This breadth positions him as a newsroom generalist anchored in place, moving from investigative reporting to heritage and performance while maintaining an emphasis on how policy, culture and infrastructure shape daily experience.
4 more real estate journalists.
Aleisha Dawson
Aleisha Dawson covers property where prestige deals, hard market data and lifestyle stories meet, with a particular focus on high-profile apartments and new projects in South East Queensland. She is a regional real estate editor within News Corp’s property network, overseeing property coverage for the Gold Coast Bulletin and contributing to Realestate.com.au’s property news. Her beat spans record-setting penthouse sales, off-market prestige deals, new apartment releases in landmark projects, and one-off high-value homes used as case studies in buyer behaviour. She tracks land and apartment markets with a data-led approach, using specific price points, volume figures and suburb lists. Dawson also reports on quirky homes, celebrity property, pop culture-linked locations and technology-shaped renovations, and her stories are widely republished by developers, agents and project marketers.
Blair Jackson
Blair Jackson explains housing through money: how prices, policy and banks shape the way people buy, sell and live. He is a reporter with the national wire service NewsWire, covering real estate and household finance across Australia. His work follows housing downturns, price movements, negative equity, mortgages, first-home buyers and existing borrowers. He reports on renters, poor housing conditions, high rents, repairs, affordability and housing inequality. He examines zoning, supply targets, tax changes, construction limits, development decisions and efforts to fix housing shortages. His finance coverage includes mortgage fraud, bank risk, interest rates, household costs and windfalls used to pay off property. He also covers auctions, listings, luxury homes, renovations and major developments. Jackson combines data, policy analysis, expert warnings, open-home and auction detail, and personal examples to show how financial decisions affect households and communities.
Bonnie Campbell
Bonnie Campbell is a luxury property reporter for The Australian Financial Review who focuses on the very top of the residential market, where big-ticket homes, mega-mansions and high-profile sales set and test price records. She covers trophy properties, record-breaking deals and prestige streets, using individual sales as case studies in how wealth, status and grand houses move through the market. Her stories track extreme price movements, large-scale renovations, unusual features and multi-million dollar listings, and link them to high-net-worth buyers, business leaders and public figures. She repeatedly returns to prestige coastal, resort and lifestyle markets, explaining how scarcity, views and amenity support multi-million dollar valuations. Alongside single-property features, she produces roundups of major luxury deals to show patterns in where the biggest money flows and which houses define the top end.
Caroline Delaney
Caroline Delaney is a senior property and features journalist at the Irish Examiner whose work links individual homes, damaged houses and outdoor spaces to the wider housing landscape. She covers residential listings with clear, price‑led pieces on specific homes coming to market, highlighting core details such as guide price, size, house type and a plain sense of location. Her property features look at fire damage and repair, treating house fires as a structural issue for the housing market and following cases through court proceedings and the process of putting homes right. She also reports on outdoor spaces and synthetic lawns, including environmental experts’ views on plastic turf in domestic gardens. Her news and features background keeps the tone fact‑led rather than promotional and gives her coverage a practical focus on aspiration, risk and everyday use of housing.