Jamie Durie reveals why he didn't return to The Block for season 20

It’s hard to believe it’s been 21 years since The Block first premiered on Australian TV. The first season of the reality show starred just four couples renovating four floors of a rundown apartment complex in Bondi and was hosted by landscape guru Jamie Durie.

Fast forward to 2024 and The Block is celebrating its milestone twentieth season, with current host Scott Cam bringing back a fan favourite team from the series each week. One person who’s yet to join in on the celebrations, however, is Jamie.

The TV personality, 54, tells Yahoo Lifestyle he didn’t film a cameo appearance on this year’s season in Phillip Island simply because he wasn’t contacted.

“I haven't been asked, no,” he said. “But I think they've got it covered. They’re pretty good at what they do and, to be honest, we're on rival networks at the moment. I’m on Seven, Scotty’s on Nine.”

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Jamie went on to share that he and Scotty, who worked together on Backyard Blitz from 2000 to 2007, are “still great mates” and “catch up for lunch all the time”.

“I just love what they've done with the show,” he adds. “I was proud to be a part of it from the beginning and I think [executive producers] David Barbour and Julian Cress have done an incredible job taking that franchise to so many years forward.

“I take my hat off to them, it's fantastic. It's become a great part of Australian TV and is really iconic, I think it's great. It's brilliant. And I'm very, very proud to have played a small part in the beginning of the series.”

Jamie's latest TV project

Jamie has presented several renovation and lifestyle shows around the world since hosting The Block and recently launched his brand new documentary series Growing Home with Jamie Durie on Channel Seven.

The series was filmed across two years as Jamie, alongside his partner Ameka and their two children, navigates the challenging task of building a new eco home with off-grid capability in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

“To be honest, this is the show I've always wanted to make,” he shares. “Over the last 27 years, I've done 54 primetime lifestyle shows, both in Australia and in the US, and it’s all of the learnings that I've gathered along the way. It’s putting together all of that knowledge into one big, real-life project that is built as sustainably as we possibly can.”

Jamie describes the new series as “a very raw, honest look” at all the trials and tribulations that come with building a house in Australia with rising interest rates and increased building costs.

“We've gone through all of the same issues that other Australian families have gone through when they're building their own house, and it's been tough. We’ve had to really put everything we can into this and it hasn't been an easy process,” he says.

Jamie's 'game-changing' product for the home

One tool Jamie’s been using to help spruce up his new house is Cabot’s EasyDeck Maintenance System, which he says is a “game-changer” for people preparing to entertain on their decks in summer.

“Necessity is the mother of all invention and when I realised I had to pull this house together in a matter of three or four weeks, I thought, well, how do I make a deck look fantastic in a day or two?” he remarks.

“And so the EasyDeck gives us the opportunity to quickly spruce it up before the makeover so that it's looking as good as it possibly can prior to the filming. But I would imagine that most mums and dads or Aussie families out there who are entertaining over Christmas, they'd all be thinking the same thing.”

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Jamie adds that the product is a “no fuss way of enlivening the grain of the timber” to make it look brand new again.

“I usually pressure blast my deck to begin with, and then after you let it dry, you'll see lots of whiskers on the deck from the pressure blasting,” he details. “Those whiskers then need to be sanded back with two different grades of sandpaper and then cleaned off perfectly so there's no sand left on it.

“And then, of course, that's when you start painting the timber and preserving it, and that really should be done once a year. I usually use the Cabot's product for that, but to give it a fresh lease on life throughout the year, maybe once or twice, I would use this system.”

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