Season 22 of The Block promises intense drama from the start. Filming begins this month in Mount Eliza, a bayside suburb on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. Producers made a last-minute cast change after a New South Wales team withdrew just days before production. The replacement Queensland duo, Chantel Green (formerly Bundalo) and boyfriend Wyatt Randall, recently appeared on set for their introductory segments.
Fitness Entrepreneurs Enter the Competition
The couple immerses deeply in the fitness industry. Chantel owns the activewear brand Her Form, while they co-manage the fitness and nutrition app Finding Form. Recently, Chantel set her Instagram to private, and Wyatt deleted his account entirely.
Construction Family Roots
Chantel hails from a construction family led by parents Nova and Sharon. Sisters Tijana, a 2019 Miss World Australia finalist who co-hosts the podcast She Rises with fitness influencer Ashy Bines, and Taesha, married to Gold Coast tobacco tycoon Travers ‘The Candyman’ Beynon, complete the siblings. Another sister, Danielle, rounds out the family. Chantel, Tijana, and Danielle previously worked at the family construction firm, though Chantel now focuses solely on fitness.
Personal Bankruptcy and Family Financial Challenges
Records show Chantel faced severe financial difficulties and applied for bankruptcy in October 2020. Her father Nova encountered similar issues. As a Wollongong builder, he drew attention in 2016 for paying $71,500 in building fines and professional costs.
Nova and his company, GC Property Holdings, faced four counts each of building without a construction certificate. Court proceedings in Wollongong Local Court on October 20, 2016, followed a council investigation into four homes on Wyndarra Way. Development consents issued in July and August 2014 required certificates before work started, but construction proceeded without them, violating the NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Act.
Nova pleaded guilty to all charges. In a court letter, he explained distractions from his mother-in-law’s death and a family member’s life-threatening heart surgery led him to overlook the certification. He noted, ‘It [was] the toughest six months of our lives,’ adding that GC Property Holdings had built over 50 houses in two years without prior issues.
Magistrate Michael Stoddart emphasized the expectations for an experienced builder, imposing $66,000 in fines on Nova and his company, plus $5,500 in professional costs. GC Property Holdings entered liquidation in October 2018.
This marked Nova’s second offense. In September 2014, he pleaded guilty to three counts of development without consent, paying $45,000 in fines and $3,400 in professional fees.
Legal Dispute Involving Beynon
Nova also clashed legally with son-in-law Travers Beynon in 2013. Beynon, known as Australia’s Hugh Hefner for his flamboyant lifestyle, sued over allegedly defamatory texts Nova sent in October 2012. The texts accused Beynon of misconduct in a Beenleigh property deal conducted in Taesha’s name, later sold to a company where Beynon became director.
Beynon won by default due to Nova’s lack of defense, but withdrew the case amid his own legal issues with lawyers. Beynon and Taesha share three children: Velicia, 12, Serafina, 11, and Santiago, 1. He has two adult children from a prior marriage.
Beynon’s former Instagram showcased bikini-clad women, supercars, lavish wealth, and his ‘Candy Shop Mansion’ as a playboy haven. Recent developments hint at challenges for the smoke shop mogul.
Viewers await whether Chantel discloses her connection to Beynon on the family-friendly show. The Block airs on Channel Nine later this year.
