The Block 2027: Jacksons Hill Sunbury Location and History

The Block heads to Jacksons Hill

The Block is taking on one of the most unusual renovation sites in its history, with the 2027 season confirmed for Jacksons Hill in Sunbury, on Melbourne's north-western fringe.

Nine has acquired three heritage-listed buildings from the Victorian Government for the program's 23rd season. Five contestant teams will be tasked with converting the former institutional buildings into five separate family homes.

The project marks a return to large-scale restoration after The Block spent its previous two seasons working with new builds. Scott Cam and Shelley Craft are confirmed to return in 2027.

The buildings are on the eastern side of the former Victoria University campus. A Victorian Planning Authority study identifies Building 1 as the former Female Infirmary Ward, Building 2 as the Female Admission and Special Wards building and Building 3 as a former hospital.

How the three buildings will be divided into five homes has not been revealed. A 2017 adaptive reuse study found considerable differences between the structures: Building 1 contained large single-level rooms, Building 2 had smaller rooms arranged over two levels, while Building 3 offered larger spaces across one level. Those assessments are now almost a decade old and do not indicate their present condition.

Jacksons Hill has a long institutional history

The television renovation will take place within a precinct whose history stretches back to the 1860s. The Sunbury Industrial School was established there in 1865 to house and train children who were wards of the state. It closed in 1879 following investigations into conditions within Victoria's industrial school system.

The buildings subsequently became the Sunbury Asylum. The institution changed names as government policy and terminology surrounding mental health evolved, later operating as the Sunbury Hospital for the Insane and Sunbury Mental Hospital.

The wider complex was substantially expanded from the late 19th century into the early 20th century. It later became associated with the Caloola Mental Hospital and Training Centre and, ultimately, the Caloola Training Centre, which operated until the early 1990s.

Victoria University subsequently occupied part of the site, establishing its Sunbury campus at Jacksons Hill before the campus closed. The Victorian Government purchased the former university property in 2018 as part of plans for the precinct's longer-term redevelopment and heritage conservation.

The buildings being used by The Block are included within the Victorian Heritage Register. Proposed works are therefore subject to heritage requirements rather than giving contestants unrestricted scope to demolish or substantially alter the historic structures.

A sixth renovation for The Block: The House Next Door

The main competition will not be the only Block project at Jacksons Hill in 2027. Nine has also announced The Block: The House Next Door, a spin-off for Stan in which returning former contestants will renovate a sixth property nearby.

Cam and Craft will also host the spin-off. The returning contestants have not yet been confirmed.

An exact premiere date for The Block 2027 has not been announced. Applications for contestants are open, with filming expected to require participants to be available for about 12 weeks from February 2027.

Victoria's Jacksons Hill, Sunbury - 1 hour from Melbourne. [map]

Video: Jacksons Hill