3 July, 2012 1:46PM AEST

Hunter winners rock The Block

The Hunter is consolidating its reputation for producing big winners of reality tv shows, with an East Maitland couple earning over $600,000 in the finale of the latest series of The Block.

  • Print Print page
  • Email Email this
  • Permalink Permalink
  • Share

It was just last year that 25-year-old Newcastle hairdresser Emma Duncan took out the title of The Biggest Loser along with $100,000.

Then, of course, there was the memorably-named Adamstown beautician, Kylie Booby, who was crowned Australian Princess in 2007.

And just down the F3 on the Central Coast, you'll find the original winner of Masterchef, Julie Goodwin, and the recent winner of The Voice, Karise Eden.

Now Lara Welham and Brad Cranfield, with their haul of more than $600,000 plus a car, are believed to have scored the biggest reality-show win on Australian tv.

The pair had the biggest property of the four Melbourne houses that were auctioned but also had the highest reserve price, so hadn't felt too confident they would win.

But as it turned out, the house that they spent weeks of sleepless nights and stress-filled days renovating and decorating, fetched an unexpected $1.6million at auction.

PE teacher Lara admits she was so anxious durinig the auction she threw up afterwards.

She and her partner, miner Brad, were taken completely by surprise by the result, as they told 1233 ABC Newcastle's Garth Russell.

"We were pretty stunned actually because we never, ever thought our property would go for that much, and to win that amount of money we can't really comprehend actually how much that is," Lara says.

"It's sunk in that we've actually won The Block, but not the actual amount of money that we've won."

The money means the couple's own property dreams are a bit closer to coming true.

An old timber house they bought in the Newcastle beachside suburb of Merewether was relocated by truck and is currently being stored on a commercial block.

Now they're looking for a large block of land in the Maitland area to put the house on so they can renovate it and live a semi-rural lifestyle.

It's amazing their exhausting and frustrating stint on The Block hasn't put them off renovating altogether.

"It was one of the most tiring things you could ever do, you just never, could ever catch up on your sleep," Lara says.

"You'd do your all-nighters at the end of the week and straight back in it the next day.

"It took us so long to get over it."

One of the aspects that lures viewers to The Block is the dramatic, teary meltdowns as couples under stress turn on each other, but Lara and Brad sailed through without too many confrontations.

"I think we handled it pretty well, we don't usually argue much in real life so we were fine," Lara says.

While the couple have no desire to continue a reality tv career and are planning to return to work shortly, Brad says they did become accustomed to the constant presence of cameras.

"You sort of do get really used to them, because you spend so much time with the camera and the sound guys you sort of become mates with them," he says.

However, it might not be the last you see of Brad and Lara on your television screens.

It's been announced The Block will return next year in an "All Stars" format, featuring former contestants.