Why was Taskmaster Australia filmed in New Zealand? Even Alex Horne is jealous of the reason
When Taskmaster Australia launched on Network 10 on 2 February 2023, eagle-eyed fans clocked something odd: the task house didn't look very Australian. Same lake, same caravan, same suspiciously lush green hills as Taskmaster NZ.
That's because it's literally the same house. Here's why — and why the man who invented the whole format can't stop moaning about it.
The short answer
The tasks are filmed in New Zealand because the company making the show is a New Zealand company. When Network 10 and British format owner Avalon commissioned the Australian version in October 2022, they partnered with Kevin & Co — the Auckland-based outfit that had already been producing Taskmaster NZ since October 2020. Rather than build a second task house across the Tasman, the production simply reused the one it had.
Only the studio episodes are shot in Australia — Sydney for most series, Melbourne for series 3. Everything set at "the Taskmaster Retreat" happens near Auckland.
The house itself
The property is a boutique venue in Riverhead, North Auckland, about half an hour outside the city — known as the Taskmaster Ranch on the NZ show and the Taskmaster Retreat on the Australian one. And it's enormous. According to Taskmaster's assistant Tom Cashman, the grounds include:
- A caravan — a Taskmaster staple, primed for cramped-space tasks.
- A shed — for whatever horrors the task writers dream up.
- A path down to the lake — an actual lake, on the property.
- A big house with a driveway — plus a big field beyond it.
Filming runs to roughly a week per contestant — just short of five weeks in New Zealand per series.
Why Alex Horne is jealous
The UK version films its tasks at a tight suburban house in west London. The New Zealand estate is, by comparison, a sprawling paradise — and the format's creator has noticed.
"Alex is always saying how jealous he is at the NZ Taskmaster and how much room there is, because their one is very tight," Cashman told TV Tonight in 2025.
Not a bad flex: the spin-off got a better house than the original.
Is any of it filmed in Australia?
Increasingly, yes. Series 4 in 2025 added a week of location tasks on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour — mirroring the UK show's habit of mixing in a location week each series — and Cashman has suggested that's the new normal going forwards. The studio records, with Taskmaster Tom Gleeson on his throne, have always been on Australian soil.
For the record: five series and 44 episodes in — with the 2026 line-up featuring Rove McManus, Celia Pacquola, Joel Creasey, Anisa Nandaula, and Brett Blake — the arrangement hasn't changed.
The Taskmaster sits in one country. His house is in another. Somehow it works.