The Block returns for Season 22 in Mount Eliza on the Mornington Peninsula, where five homes overlook Port Phillip Bay and the Melbourne city skyline, the first time the series has featured water views. With blue-chip real estate, spectacular scenery and five eager teams, the season is set for high stakes start.
The teams — Courtney and Sev, Lisa and Rosco, Tayla and Rick, Adam and Jolene, and Chantel and Wyatt — arrive excited by the scale of the houses and the bay views. Host Scott Cam, joined by Frankie, welcomes them on a Victorian public holiday, meaning no power tools and time to inspect the site.
The game begins immediately with a house decider challenge, deliver a guest bedroom by 9.00am Sunday. The winner chooses their house, while last place gets what remains. Scott also reveals HQ — a 1,000-square-metre Stratco shed stocked with Bunnings Warehouse, Chemist Warehouse and McCafé.
As the teams size each other up, Courtney keeps quiet about being a Commercial Construction Site Manager, saying only that she works in admin.
Contestants tour the homes, lock in early choices for wardrobes, window furnishings and flooring, and begin planning a room they have not yet seen. Two teams quickly impress Scott and Dan by raising the idea of rooftop terraces on the downtown houses.
At the Nine In Six safety induction, Aidan O’Shannessy, Simmo and Scott reveal a major twist, for most of the build, contestants must work the same hours as the building team. No special treatment, real-world renovating. Scott’s warning is clear: “Treat Every Hour Like It’s Your Last.”
There is some good news, each team receives a CommBank tablet with the 12-week schedule and room budgets, plus $250,000 from CommBank to fit out their homes. They also receive architectural plans, still unaware which house they will ultimately build in.
Landscaper Troy Lovett chooses to work with Courtney and Sev, frustrating Rick and Tayla, who thought family connections had secured him. In another major twist the contestants will live together in a share house owned by former contestants Emma and Ben, a reveal that divides the group.
Day two is promo day, keeping the teams off site despite Sunday’s deadline. At the shoot, Shelley Craft and judge Darren Palmer surprise them. Darren explains he will not judge week one but sets the season’s design brief, Mount Eliza buyers want “quiet luxury” — white, light and bright, with a refined Axel Vervoordt feel.
When building finally begins on day three, each team tackles the guest bedroom in a different way. Lisa and Rosco, in House 3, aim for a raw, earthy room with an egg-shaped niche. Courtney and Sev, in House 4, abandon dark blue walls after Darren’s advice and look for ways to lighten their blue wardrobe doors.
Chantel and Wyatt, in House 2, lean into an old-luxury style, with Chantel confident on site and Wyatt outside his comfort zone. Adam and Jolene, in House 1, are ready to start before Dan points out they are in the wrong room. Rick and Tayla, in House 5, make the same mistake, wasting almost half a day insulating despite strong workmanship.
With tools down and the first reveal approaching, the Mount Eliza season is already delivering big views, tight timelines, strategic secrets and early mistakes.
