The gavel’s barely fallen on the 2026 season of The Block , but drama is already brewing for next season after Nine snapped up a heritage-listed former lunatic asylum on Melbourne’s fringe for $1.1 million, sparking backlash among locals who believe the price was too low and the deal too private.
But ever since it aired, the sale has divided the historic suburb about 40 kilometres from Melbourne’s CBD.
“Restored rather than let fall into rack and ruin,” one Reddit commenter wrote. “Who else is willing to invest the $$$ required to restore a heritage listed property?!”
Another struck a middle note: “I sympathise with the [sic] everyone opposed to it. If it goes ahead I really hope that the show deals with the history of the site sensitively.”
Cam described the 23rd season during the online reveal as among the most ambitious projects the renovation show has tackled yet. And given that planning documents lodged with Heritage Victoria outline the decrepit state of the buildings – from leaking gutters and downpipes to as much as 30 centimetres of soil needing to be dug out beneath the floors – he might be right.
Built as an industrial school for boys in the 1860s, the hilltop site became the Sunbury Asylum in 1879, and later a training centre and university campus. For the past 15 years, the buildings have largely sat empty.
In 2018, the state government bought the site from Victoria University and, in September, sold the three buildings to Nine.
So, did The Block get a bargain? And can the TV renovators save a crumbling piece of heritage while keeping the community onside?
“These spectacular heritage buildings are part of Victoria’s history, and this sale will mean they continue to play a part for years to come,” a department spokesperson said.
The department said the price couldn’t be compared with local house prices – Sunbury’s median sits at $730,000, according to the latest Domain House Price Report – because the three buildings require considerable restoration before they can be renovated or used.
It added that Nine had advised its intention to deliver a separate community project elsewhere on the site.
Nine declined to comment, and the department didn’t respond to further questions, but planning documents lodged by Micjoy Pty Ltd, a company associated with Nine, show The Block team began meeting Heritage Victoria in March – six months before the sale was recorded.
The submitted plans showed each building will be split in two, creating five competition homes of 518 to 615 square metres with each featuring a pool and a glass-and-metal pavilion. The spin-off home will be 302 square metres.
The documents also describe years of very little maintenance, with flooring that may need to be lifted across large areas before original boards are salvaged and re-laid. The state’s own 2021 conservation plan called for urgent repairs within a year – those works are yet to be carried out.
What’s clear is it will be pricey, with the conservation plan itself warning that whatever the site is used for, “costs associated with conservation and adaptive re-use works will be significant”.
Still, there’s hope for the heritage site. Builders who inspected it found the timber framing to be generally sound, with submitted plans also including a full program of conservation works, from repairing the original windows to relaying the slate roofs. Heritage Victoria is yet to rule on the plans.
It won’t be the first time The Block has tackled an emotionally charged historic project – it renovated heritage-listed The Gatwick , a former boarding house in St Kilda, in 2018. But it may be the first time it’s faced a community group that’s spent 13 years fighting to preserve the site it’s bought.
Leading that charge is Alison Cunningham, who co-founded the Sunbury Asylum Alliance. For the passionate local, the sale comes as a severe blow.
Cunningham has spent over a decade advocating for a revival of the site – going as far as brainstorming plans with locals to transform unused spaces into community centres and even a museum to showcase the site’s history.
Now, she fears the community’s been locked out.
“If it went up for public tender, we would have tried to fundraise to buy it,” she says.
“And look, we’re not silly – I understand how much these things cost … but if they [the government] had said to us, ‘Look if you can get an organisation together to run it and a detailed plan of how you would do it’ … we would have jumped at the chance.
“But there was never any mention of it … I just think they wanted it off their hands.
“And my fear now is that it’s going to be a gated community and no one gets to set foot in there again.”
Cunningham suspects The Block will have more than just wheelbarrow loads of soil and damp to contend with next season – but also face growing community resentment.
But she concedes there’s one best-case scenario that could deliver a win-win.
“We’d love to get the admin building,” she says. “So, if The Block did that, it would be the dream for us.”
Sarah Webb Sarah Webb is a journalist with almost 20 years’ experience covering general news, business and real estate in newsrooms across the country. She specialises in property markets, housing trends and urban change.
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