Meet Maddy and Charlotte from The Block 2024, the show's newest team

Competing on The Block is undoubtedly stressful at the best of times, but imagine landing on-site mid-week, part-way through filming, and immediately taking control of an active renovation.

That was the situation that Sydney sisters Maddy and Charlotte Harry found themselves in when they stepped in to replace Perth couple Jesse and Paige, who unexpectedly quit in week four of the competition.

“Things had already been picked for us; layouts had already been done,” says Charlotte, 22, who has a degree in business. “It was very overwhelming … we had electricians straight away coming up to us and the builder going, ‘Where do you want this?’ and I was like, ‘I don’t even know where the bedroom is!’.” 

The two were at their family home on the northern beaches when they answered a phone call from a producer and the show’s executive producer and co-creator Julian Cress just 24 hours earlier.

“They were like, ‘A team has dropped out, do you think you could get here tomorrow?’,” recalls Maddy, 25, who has an accounting degree. “We frantically packed our bags … it wasn’t until we were on the plane sitting there that we were like, ‘Oh my goodness, what are we doing?’”

Despite being the youngest team in the show’s history, the sisters – both of whom work in their family business – already have some renovating experience.

They bought their first property together – a miner’s cottage in Newcastle – in 2020 and “chipped away” at a renovation for two years between study and work before selling it.

“We did as much as we could ourselves because our budget was pretty low,” says Maddy. “[It was] definitely nothing of the size or the magnitude or the budget of The Block.”

They’ve since bought two more properties between them, one of which they had just started work on when they got the late invite to join the Phillip Island season.

“We had the demo team come in and they ripped it apart, and then a few days later we got the call,” says Maddy. “That was a bit chaotic having to organise that last minute.”

While they had some reservations about joining mid-season, the sisters say they were grateful for the opportunity and determined to give it their “best shot”. 

“We were really keen just to challenge ourselves – that’s a part of who we are,” says Maddy, who describes herself as the “numbers gal”.

“I’m very much the planner, the organiser, the finances – making sure we don’t run out of money,” she says. “Charlotte is by nature very practical, so she is good with the tools and helping the trades if they need it; good at managing people.

“The more we’ve done, the more we’ve just trusted each other’s strengths and we know where our weaknesses are.”

Although they both agree they make a good team, they say working with a sibling doesn’t come without its “hiccups”.

“The thing is, you can’t get divorced when you’re sisters – you fight like cats and dogs and you still have to love each other,” says Charlotte. 

The duo imagined styling as being their biggest challenge going in, and while they grew up watching The Block, Maddy says that nothing could prepare them for the experience of being a contestant. 

“I don’t think we stopped for a single minute … you’re constantly on the go, constantly wired,” she says. “You just can’t prepare yourself for how that feels.”

Charlotte agrees: “I’d say it was definitely the hardest thing we’ve ever done”.

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