The Block is back for its 18th season and will premiere on Sunday, August 7 at 7 pm on Nine and 9Now.
Instead of renovating run-down homes in the Melbourne suburbs, production is getting a breath of fresh air and moving to a new building site in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges in Gisborne South.
For the first time in Block history, the contestants will have to build grand homesteads and plan landscaping for more than 700 square metres of land, drastically changing the scale of the task.
Taking on the home renovation challenge are five pairs:
• Retired AFL player Joel Patfull and his influencer fiancée Elle Ferguson (NSW)
• Plumber Tom Calleja and his social worker wife Sarah-Jane Wilson (Victoria)
• Actress and lawyer Sharon Johal and her accountant husband Ankur Dogra (Victoria)
• Engaged tradies Dylan Adams and Jenny Heath (Queensland)
• Friends Omar Slaimankhel and Osman Said (Oz) (NSW)
Left to right: Tom and Sarah-Jane, Omar and Osman, Scott Cam and his dog Frankie, Joel and Elle, Ankur and Sharon, Dylan and Jenny
See also: The Block Tree Change: Everything you need to know about the contestants
At stake is $100,000 for the winner of The Block, plus whatever profit each pair’s homes can make on auction day.
While most of the contestants are eager to tackle this year’s challenge, the mammoth construction effort proves too much for some, with one couple dropping their tools and leaving the show three days into filming.
Returning this season to pass their verdict on the rooms built each week are judges Neale Whitaker, Darren Palmer and Shaynna Blaze.
Hosts Scott Cam and Shelley Craft are also back to guide and advise the contestants, as well as foremen duo Keith Schleiger and Dan Reilly who will keep the contestants on their toes throughout the build.
Judges Neale Whitaker, Shaynna Blaze and Darren Palmer
Cam will also build his own house alongside the couples to help inspire them and create a space for them to come together.
The host will work with previous contestants Duncan Miller and Spence Thomson, and Sarah Armstrong from The Block Shop, to help make his dream a reality. Cam will be renovating the original 1866 homestead built by Joseph McGeorge that was still standing when the site was purchased for the new series.
Hosts Scott Cam and Shelley Craft
Cam called The Block’s tree change a monumental challenge like no other. He said: “When I arrived on site for the first time, I thought to myself we had done a lot of big Blocks in the past but nothing like this – it’s massive.”
“We are building our own little town, and at times that’s daunting. But we have a terrific bunch of contestants who give it a red-hot crack.”
Foremen Keith Schleiger and Dan Reilly
The Block: Tree Change premieres Sunday, August 8, at 7:00 pm on Nine and 9Now