The Block Bondi contestants look back on the first season of the hit show
Back in 2003, reality television was a totally new concept. The first season of Big Brother had just aired, and Australian Idol was on its way.
When The Block arrived on free-to-air television, its debut episode netted 1.7 million viewers. It was an enormous success for Channel Nine, with more than three million people tuning into the grand finale.
The eight baby-faced contestants tasked with renovating a derelict two-bedroom apartment in Bondi were in for an almighty shock.
“We didn’t really know what we were doing,” says Amity Dry, a musician and performer who went on the show with then-partner Phil Rankine. “I just thought we were going in and doing a bit of decorating. It was such a shock when we walked in and it was a building site.”
Over the past 19 seasons, The Block has become the most successful and long-running reality television show made in Australia, with the potential for contestants to pocket huge prize winnings and become household names. For many, the show has been the springboard from which they launched lucrative careers in renovation, design and property.
But back then, “it was all very unknown”, says Gavin Atkins. Fondly known as “the boys”, Atkins and his partner Warren Sonin had a little renovation experience behind them but were totally unprepared for the instant fame.
“Reality TV didn’t exist back then,” Atkins recalls. “And it was very controversial having a gay couple on TV.”
“The shock jocks went for it, and turned our life upside down. It became a national conversation. We became mega, mega famous in a matter of 48 hours.”
Sonin says: “We found the Australian public really embraced us. It was really quite liberating.”
At the time, Dry was a budding singer and performer and hoped the show would lift her profile. “I thought it might help, but nobody – not even the producers – expected it to be the huge hit it was,” she says.
“When we were filming one day, [host] Jamie Durie said ‘you do realise this will change your life’ but we couldn’t perceive that.”
The Block is now an enormous television production with hundreds of staff and contractors, but it was a bare-bones operation in its infancy.
“It was so simple,” says Sonin. “There were four couples, four cameramen, two producers and four soundmen – and that was it. We went on a journey with them, like rats in a science experiment.”
Incredibly, the contestants all continued to work their day jobs during the entire 12-week filming period.
“You weren’t allowed to be on the property from 9am to 5pm,” Atkins recalls. “We would all get back from our jobs and change into renovating clothes, and work through to 11 o’clock. Then you’d get up early and do it all again.”
The group struggled to keep corporate work outfits clean and dust-free as they lived on the job site throughout the season.
Unlike now, The Block had minimal sponsors, and the contestants had a budget of just $40,000 to renovate and furnish the entire apartment.
In comparison, the latest season of The Block set contestants a budget of $250,000 plus the opportunity to win more throughout the season.
“I found a cupboard on the side of the road and painted it,” recalls Dry, who became well-known for her shabby chic design choices in the first season. “We just didn’t have the money to do high-end.”
She remembers bringing a scrapbook with cutouts from decor and design magazines. “There were no Instagram or Pinterest boards then,” she laughs.
In that sense, Dry believes the show has fundamentally changed. Once contestants barely scraped it together, now the teams are renovating and designing luxury family homes that fetch well over $3 million. “It’s gone from relatable to aspirational,” she says. “And there is interest in both.”
The contestants also received minimal guidance throughout the renovation and, without smartphones, couldn’t rely on instant access to information and inspiration online.
“I had no clue how to do anything,” says Dry.” I remember asking one of the camera crew … how to do something and he said he wasn’t able to help me.”
“When we had to go to shops, there were no maps on your phone.”
Atkins and Sonin recall navigating the renovation process with minimal support behind the scenes. “There were no fairies in the background helping us. You had to project manage and find all the trades and do it all yourself.”
Back then, tradespeople had never heard of The Block, so getting them on-site with short notice proved extraordinarily difficult for all of the contestants.
“Half the time they didn’t show up,” recalls Dry. “One guy showed up and did such a bad job. That was a true life experience of renovating. Now, you’ve got tradies lining up to do The Block.”
Along with the broader property market, the prize money at stake has skyrocketed since the show’s inception. The winners of the first season, Adam Thorn and Fiona Mills, sold their apartment for $751,000, earning them a profit of $156,000 plus the $100,000 prize.
Amity and Phil took home the smallest prize of $60,000, which she described as “disappointing but not heartbreaking”. Ten years later, the pair returned to The Block for the All-Stars season and were crowned the winners, netting $295,000 in profit plus another $100,000 in prize money.
Although the show has undoubtedly grown and evolved over the 20 seasons, the results still boil down to the auctions, which remain a completely unscripted event.
Dry says she was “just excruciatingly nervous both times”.
“That’s the one thing that did stay the same, and that is always going to stay the same.”
Twenty years on, Atkins and Sonin reflect on the show as a pivotal time in their lives.
“I think we were very privileged, and it was an amazing chapter in our life journey,” Sonin says.
“We never wanted to be famous but we fell into it. It gave us the confidence to leave the corporate sector and start Designer Boys.”
Their company, a leading wholesale art supplier, continues to operate successfully, although Atkins and Sonin have taken a step back from its day-to-day operations. Over the years, the couple has also renovated and sold luxury homes in the Byron Bay and Sunshine Coast hinterland.
Similarly, Dry never lost her love of renovation and property. She enjoyed a rewarding career in the music industry before becoming a real estate agent in Adelaide during the pandemic. She’s now among the top 50 agents in the state.
“If you can get through The Block, you do have a pretty excellent work ethic going forward. If you can get through that, you can do most things.”
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