The Block 2019: Andy and Deb grateful for community support as bushfires threaten home

Despite all the drama in front of cameras and lights on Saturday afternoon, Block fan favourites Andy and Deb Saunders’ hearts were 1000 kilometres away in Wallabi Point, NSW, where bushfires threatened their home and their community.

“It really put things into perspective,” Mr Saunders said. “I mean, here we are doing something as amazing as The Block auctions and people are struggling at home.

“We had two neighbours that stayed in the street and hosed down all of our houses to keep them from going up, and we appreciate that so much and we couldn’t really thank them enough for saving our house while we were here.

“It’s very noble and it’s [really] an amazing act.”

Ms Saunders said she hadn’t heard much from her friends back home, which made it all the more difficult.

“Everybody was evacuated last night and the fires were raging towards a little village,” she said.

“There have been no lives lost [near us] but we have heard there was one house lost, possibly two. The flames reached nine storeys [in height] 100 metres away from our own home.”

How much did The Block houses sell for?

• Tess and Luke: 38B Grey Street sold for $3,620,000 (prize money $730,000)
• El’ise and Matt: 38D Grey Street sold for $3,450,000 (prize money $460,000)
• Andy and Deb: 38C Grey Street sold for $3,420,000 (prize money $430,000)
• Jesse and Mel: 38E Grey Street sold for $3,378,000 (prize money $388,000)
• Mitch and Mark: 38A Grey Street sold for $3,374,000 (prize money $384,000)

Andy and Deb will be taking home $430,000 in prize money, and said they can’t wait to get back to their tight-knit community.

“It’s not a bad place to have no mortgage – by the beach at Wallabi,” Mr Saunders said.

Ms Saunders added their friends at home had had their back through the entire season.

“Wallabi is just a place full of beautiful people, and right from when people found out we were coming onto The Block we had 100 per cent support from our area all the way through. I know that they’re really proud of us.”

After the auction, Andy’s mother Pamela Saunders said she was overwhelmed.

“Andy comes from humble backgrounds and to see him achieve something which is a multimillion-dollar project – it makes me so proud of him,” Ms Saunders, also known as Aunty Pam, told Domain.

The Biripi woman cried while watching the auction.

“It was something that they did together as a couple and everything they have done as a couple, it’s always been with love. And a lot of passion. They put their love and passion into what they do. They are both really beautiful, beautiful people. They are both loved by the community, our community, the Aboriginal community within our area and they are all so proud of him,” she said.

“He has always involved himself in his own community as an Aboriginal man. It makes me feel so proud. And what he has done, he has done justice to our Aboriginal men to show what we are made of and that they are passionate men and they give their all when they do anything. And it makes me as a mother so overwhelmed and so proud.

“When I speak of my children I speak from my heart.”

The couple is keen to get some rest after months of hard work.

“I think I’m just hitting the wall. I think I’m a bit exhausted,” Mr Saunders said.

His wife was glad there was a happy ending for all of the couples.

“It’s been such an amazing, big series and just to see everybody do well is the perfect outcome,” she said.

“We’re very happy with what we did today and just love that there was a 100 per cent clearance rate for the houses.”