Meet The Block 2026 contestants: The five teams competing this season

Filming has wrapped on season 22 of The Block 2026 and the contestants have officially been revealed.

It’s clear the country’s longest-running reno show is no longer the battleground of amateurs, with some teams’ on-site experience enough to rival that of Block fixtures Scott Cam and Dan Reilly.

This year’s cast features five teams from across Australia including builders, site managers and interior designers, as well as paramedics and fitness entrepreneurs.

In a first for the television series, each of the high-end houses will have water views, but time will tell if that’ll be enough to safeguard the all-important prize money in a shaky property market.

The new Blockheads better get along because, in another first for the show, they’ll be living together in a share house during the gruelling 12-week smackdown.

Here’s everything you need to know about the contestants competing on The Block 2026, including where they’re from, what they do for work and which teams have the strongest renovation experience.

Adam and Jolene

Cattle station managers Adam and Jolene were both divorced and had their own children when they met 10 years ago on her father’s property in Far North Queensland. Within 12 months, they were married.

The Block devotees have watched every episode, but it took almost a decade for Jolene to talk Adam into making an audition tape. They missed out on the last season, filmed in Daylesford, but came close enough to try again.

“I was so devastated that we didn’t get on,” Jolene shares. “I think that was because I was really surprised that we even got that far; it got my hopes up. So, we were like, ‘Okay, let’s give it a red-hot crack this time.’”

The couple say their five adult children find it “hilarious” that their parents are on reality TV. “They thought we were crazy,” Jolene says with a laugh. “But I think they’re also pretty proud of us.”

Adam, a carpenter by trade, knows his way around a building site, although having to run the project rather than following client briefs was new. Jolene’s experience is limited to Pinterest, where she happily spends hours creating mood boards. The transition to real-life interior design was “bats–t crazy”, she says.

Still, the couple went in already knowing they operated well as a team and say their remote lifestyle in South Australia has instilled a tough work ethic, even as it stacks against them for shopping prowess and staying up to date with current interior design trends.

“We don’t get an opportunity to walk into shops and just have a look around and see what couches are in and what colours are trending,” Jolene says.

“That was hard, but I think we just saw it as a challenge to step up. I don’t think people would think two ‘bushies’ like us could go on a show like that and produce what we have produced.”

• Follow Adam and Jolene’s progress throughout the season

Chantel and Wyatt

Growing up with a builder and property developer father, Chantel was inspired from an early age to become a carpenter. She also has a Certificate IV in Building and Construction and is a qualified supervisor. Having worked on more than 100 new builds, she says she has always dreamed of competing on The Block.

So, it might come as a surprise that it was her personal trainer partner, Wyatt, who pushed for the couple to apply. He had watched the show with his mum as a teenager and saw the potential in Chantel’s skill set, despite having no building experience of his own – “Does Lego count?”. They made it through on their second application.

Chantel describes the couple as “a walking contradiction”. While Wyatt will make viewers laugh with his failed attempts at tradie lingo, Chantel’s confidence on-site will catch some off guard. They are used to being underestimated and will play it to their advantage.

“People always judge me by my appearance and think that I’m good for nothing,” the mum-of-three says. “It’s fun to surprise them; I do enjoy that.”

There was plenty of banter and fun on-site with their tradies and, despite only being together for two years, the couple say they handled the pressure, for the most part, with ease. At the end of Week 1, they made a pact that stood them in good stead.

“We told each other that we won’t get angry at each other,” Wyatt explains. “We said, ‘If things get hard, we’ll work together and not get frustrated at each other’, and then we just stuck to that.”

The competitive couple did find judgment day tricky, Chantel says. While the job site was familiar territory, the timeline, relentless filming schedule and criticism did get to them.

“If the room’s not what the judges like, being able to cop the feedback and really stand strong in yourself is important,” Chantel says. “The hardest part was that mental fatigue and just trying to hold it all together all the time.”

• Follow Chantel and Wyatt’s progress throughout the season

Lisa and Rosco

With minimal building experience under their belts, 38-year-old FIFO worker Rosco wondered whether he and his paramedic wife Lisa should hold off on applying for The Block.

Waiting until they had built the farmhouse they were planning on their acreage, 40 minutes outside Perth, for example, might have been smart. Or perhaps until their two-year-old son, Lando, was a little older.

But long-time Block fan Lisa had other ideas and ploughed on with their audition tape, keen for a “shared adventure”.

“[I] wanted something that would be completely challenging and life changing, but traumatic and terrifying all at the same time,” she says.

So, the call came to pack their bags, and the show served as an intense 12-week training program for the couple, who have returned from the job site in Mount Eliza, only to boot up again as their own house build kicks off.

“There’s no perfect time to do it, I guess,” concedes Rosco. “I’m not sure you’d ever really be ready for it. Anyway – happy wife, happy life.”

The pair were so busy trying to keep up with the pace of The Block (while desperately missing Lando) that it took a while to realise they were the team with the least experience.

“We were too busy surviving,” says Lisa with a laugh. “By the time we realised, we had started to find our feet and we thought, ‘Hey, we’re not too bad!’”

TV viewers will find the couple relatable, Lisa says, as much for their lack of experience as for their constant bickering. “We probably fought more in the three months than our entire marriage, if I’m honest,” Lisa laughs.

Despite the challenges, The Block has further ignited the couple’s passion for building. Their dream would be to work together flipping houses professionally.

“Now, we have all these ideas,” Lisa says. “But we don’t have Channel Nine’s budget!”

• Follow Lisa and Roscoe’s progress throughout the season

Rick and Tayla

It took six years of trying before Melbourne builder Rick made it onto The Block. As a long-time fan, he had thought the experience would provide a distraction from his recent kidney cancer diagnosis. By the time he got the call back, he had also battled prostate cancer. Thankfully, he has bounced back from both.

“At the time, I thought, ‘What better chance to take my mind off things’,” he remembers.

While he originally applied with his daughter Shannen, Rick’s later auditions were with her twin, Tayla. They joke that by submitting the same tape three years in a row, they eventually caught the producers’ attention.

Since tackling his carpentry and joinery apprenticeship in his teens, Rick has spent most of his career on the tools and is, in his own words, a “bloody good builder”.

Not to be outdone, personal trainer Tayla, who is mum to six-year-old son Hendrix, says she has been “handy” since birth, thanks to Rick’s guidance.

“I’ve put together every single piece of furniture you see in my house,” she says. “If anything needed to be fixed, it would be me, and that was all because of Dad. He’s a good teacher.”

The high-energy duo finishes each other’s sentences and confesses they thought they would win the competition with ease. “I thought I would s–t it in,” Rick says with a laugh. “I was in for a surprise.”

Tayla says viewers will see Rick working hard and may get the impression she spends more time shopping than on the job site (“somebody has to do it”).

As a “neat freak”, Rick says he was more stressed out about the state of the shared bathroom at their living quarters than about anything Tayla did.

“I could never argue with Dad, anyway,” Tayla says. “He’s too cute.”

• Follow Rick and Tayla’s progress throughout the season

Courtney and Sev

Block teams rarely bring more expertise than Queensland besties Courtney and Sev. A construction site manager and a commercial interior designer, respectively, they have also renovated houses separately and together. Still, it took the self-confessed “super fans” four years to realise their Blockhead dreams.

Once they were in, they further prepared by thoroughly researching the area and noting design choices the judges had loved in past seasons. But after relocating from Brisbane, Courtney and Sev are the first to admit they struggled to adapt to their new environment.

“Time and money, that was what threw us off,” says Sev. “I thought we may as well throw our careers in the rubbish bin!”

It was impossible to prepare for the intensity of the show, Courtney agrees. “It’s been very different to our normal life. We ate a lot of humble pie,” she says. “The lead-times, the budget – it was so full on.”

One strategy that saved their sanity was to focus on their areas of expertise, says Courtney.

“I’m a very good site manager and Sev’s a very good designer. I didn’t try and stick my nose in unless I was asked, and Sev was the same. I think that was a huge strength for us, that we could stay in our own lanes.”

Courtney and Sev say being mates rather than a couple felt advantageous, too. “I think you’re probably more likely to unleash on your partner than on a friend,” Courtney says. “Although, that’s probably why I’m single!”

But Sev agrees. “If I did that show with my husband, we’d 100 per cent end up divorced,” she says, laughing. “It’s just not feasible; I don’t know how married people do it.”

The pair have had such an “incredible” time together that Channel Nine will have to drag them off-site and back to their day jobs after the auction hammer falls, they joke.

They hope viewers root for their story of female friendship and “two girls getting it done”. Either that or they’ll get sick of all the crying, Sev jokes. “It could go either way.”

• Follow Courtney and Sev’s progress throughout the season

Frequently ask questions

How many teams are on The Block 2026?

There are five teams competing on The Block in 2026.

Where is The Block 2026 filmed?

The Block 2026 was filmed in Mount Eliza, on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.

Which contestants have renovation experience?

This season, many contestants have renovation experience. Rick is a builder, Courtney is a construction site manager, and Sev is a commercial interior designer. Chantel has a Certificate IV in Building and Construction and is a qualified supervisor. Lisa and Rosco have the least building experience.

When does The Block 2026 start?

The Block 2026 will start at 7pm on Sunday, August 2, on Channel 9.

Which state has the most contestants?

Queensland is the state with the most contestants this year: Chantel and Wyatt are from the Gold Coast, and Courtney and Sev are from Brisbane.