The BEST episodes of Grand Designs Australia
Every episode of Grand Designs Australia ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Grand Designs Australia!
Anthony Burke presents Grand Designs Australia, meeting nine ambitious families across Australia as they tackle the challenge of a lifetime - building their dream homes. With a special guest appearance by Kevin McCloud.
#1 - Coburg, VIC
Season 9 - Episode 8 - Aired 5/19/2021
Marc and Felicity have dreams of building a non-toxic, passive home and after years of work, the unthinkable happens – a fire sweeps through their beloved home just as they are about to move in. Will their dreams be shattered forever?
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#2 - Annandale Urban House
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/22/2012
Brett and Rees are the proud parents of three young boys and desperately need more space. They love their inner west community in Sydney's Annandale, so the plan is to build on the small empty allotment behind their apartment. The first sod has barely been turned when one of the heritage buildings on their boundary is in danger of collapsing. Exhausted by ongoing battles and a build that's months behind schedule - will Brett & Rees have enough grit and determination to see their project through to completion?
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#4 - Trinity Beach Pole House
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 5/3/2012
Daniel Leipnik and Andrew Preston have long cherished the dream of a laid-back, barefoot life in the tropics. And they have found the ideal location at Trinity Beach near Cairns in Far North Queensland. Their ambitious new home will grace a hillside block bordering a World Heritage rainforest and overlooking the Coral Sea. After years planning this grand sea-change, they are ready at last to manage its construction. Their vision is for a classic pavilion-style pole home, nestled in the tree tops. But project managing is tough enough if you’re on site… and they’re attempting the job from 4,000 kilometres away in Melbourne, plus this is a first time experience for them both. While they believe they’ve left no stone unturned designing their South Pacific inspired hideaway, they can’t escape the challenges of the location. A precarious driveway, tropical downpours and expensive local trades are all threatening to send their budget and schedule spiralling out of control. Between pressing work commitments and the tyranny of distance, these idealists still believe they can pull off the house of their dreams. The question is, can they?
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#5 - Chain Of Lagoons, TAS
Season 10 - Episode 5 - Aired 6/2/2022
When Lynne and Paul met while sailing five years ago, neither had plans to fall in love, let alone relocate to the wilds of Tasmania to build a home. But that all changes for the Melbourne couple when they visit the Apple Isle and find a beautiful stretch of coastal wilderness with panoramic views over the Tasman Sea. With grand plans to build a huge Modern home, they decide that Paul will project manage construction. But living onsite for months on end in a battered up old caravan will test his skills, endurance and ultimately his health.
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#7 - Warburton Arch House
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/8/2012
Tyrone & Hailey follow the advice of a feng shui expert or 'energy ecologist' throughout construction of their new house. An owner-built labour of love, their passive solar building has a curved living roof planted with native grasses.
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#8 - Balnarring Rammed Earth
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/1/2012
Eco conscious entertainers Claire and Lisa adore their hobby farming lifestyle on Victoria's Mornington peninsula, but the cute 1930's beach shack they've long shared with two pugs has lost its once savoured charm. They're upgrading and building a sustainable, modernist, entertainers' home that blends sophisticated design elements with rammed earth, recycled materials and raw finishes. It all sounds glamorous and straightforward but with a zero contingency budget what happens when a wet winter meets an insidious clay soil?
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#10 - Clunes, NSW
Season 10 - Episode 6 - Aired 6/9/2022
Retirees and childhood sweethearts Liz and Warren have been together for over half a century, but a relaxed lifestyle is the last thing on their minds. They've taken on a hundred-acre Macadamia farm in the Byron Bay hinterland, with grand plans to build an epic five-bedroom Mediterranean style villa-cum-castle. Inspired by their adventures abroad their design is whimsical, unconventional, and extravagant. With no architect their plans embrace spontaneity and change on a whim, add in project managing it themselves and things soon freewheel. Question is, will this fairy tale dream have a happy ending?
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#11 - Foxground Pavilion
Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/30/2014
After 30 years as a civil engineer, Joe Cato has built more roads than the Romans. But a few years ago he and wife Maura made the active decision to slow everything down - to sell their successful construction business, and spend more time with their three children.
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#13 - Northcote Vinegar Factory
Season 6 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/17/2015
Owner/Architect Adrian is passionate about sustainable building. He has grand plans for turning his Vinegar Factory inside out by creating a four storey eco-friendly house complete with a series of walled rainforest.
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#18 - Inverloch, VIC
Season 10 - Episode 2 - Aired 5/12/2022
In 2016, a fire destroyed the much-loved old family homestead on Alistair and Belinda's dairy farm, in Inverloch, Victoria. And while a lifetime of happy memories went up in smoke, the couple were determined to create something new that would reflect the family's farming history, while providing a home to entice their kids to stick around. With Belinda supervising the build, they embark on a bold new project to create a comfortable home that looks like a dairy shed, complete with silos for bedrooms. But trying to recreate an authentic looking 100-year-old barn using both old and new materials is harder than it looks, and it's not long before Belinda feels the pressure to get it right.
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#19 - Faraday Aussie Bush House
Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/11/2014
Before Matt McClelland’s wife Anne died six years ago, they’d been looking for a rural property to build on - a place to call home for them and for their four adult children to come to visit. So when Matt stumbled across 40 acres in central Victoria with spectacular views to Mt Alexander’s granite hill side, he knew he’d found the spot.
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#20 - Whittlesea 'Earth', VIC
Season 10 - Episode 9 - Aired 1/25/2023
Bel and John are building a radical underground house on 25 spectacular acres at Whittlesea, in Victoria's Plenty Valley - so named for its fertile farmland and magnificent views. But the area has also acquired a more terrifying reputation. In 2009, 120 people died nearby at Kinglake in what's now known as the Black Saturday bushfires, and as a result Bel and John want a home that's fire proof! With John away at work for much of the build, it's up to Bel to project manage the difficult and complex build. But a number of unexpected challenges make the process harder than anticipated, and with their underground sanctuary looking more like an airport terminal than a stylish home, the pressure reaches breaking point!
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#22 - Torrens Park Modern Mansion
Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/24/2013
Hoteliers Richard and Denise have knocked down the family home in the Adelaide Hills and are re-building an even bigger version, despite the fact their kids are grown. This modern mansion will have all the bells and whistles, amid resort like luxury on 3 tiered acres overlooking Adelaide. But is this unpretentious, likeable couple creating a home or a hotel for themselves? Money may be no object but have they taken on too much?
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#23 - The Graceville Container House
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/9/2014
This feisty and resourceful couple decide to trial a whole new way of building, starting with 10, then 20, then 31 steel shipping containers that carpenter Todd, plans to crane into their suburban block, then somehow weld into a flood proof family home - all for just $400,000.
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#24 - Claremont Origami
Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/23/2014
Why would an architect at the pinnacle her career and creative powers ditch the drafting desk, don steel cap boots and take up a blowtorch? Because for Ariane Prevost, that’s exactly the antidote to a lifetime of designing houses for other people – 102 in fact.
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#25 - Goobarragandra, NSW
Season 10 - Episode 1 - Aired 5/5/2022
Trevor Robinson loves a challenge and there's nothing he likes more than flying his ultralight aircraft over the NSW Snowy Mountains. It's a pastime that's all the more remarkable for the fact that Trevor was paralysed when hit by a car on his motorbike a number of years ago. Now Trevor and wife Jeanette are looking to build a very special home close to nature in which Trevor can move about easily in his wheelchair. When a 15 acre block comes on the market in the Snowy's spectacular Goobarragandra hills they pounce with plans to build a remarkable underground home overlooking their 1.5 kilometre river frontage. With Trevor as project manager the build gets underway, but as the months roll on his health starts to deteriorate not only impacting how much time he can spend onsite, but whether he will be able to move to his underground retreat at all.
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