Meet Dennis Scott, NRL player turned Selling Houses Australia’s resident landscaper
You might know Dennis Scott as a TV gardener. Or perhaps, you recognise him as NRL player Dennis Scott of Canterbury Bulldogs. He might even be the guy that used to fix your car – because Dennis is a man who wears a few hats!
Photography Melissa Heath/Selling Houses Australia
When Dennis Scott joined Selling Houses Australia as its resident landscape gardener, along with interiors expert Wendy Moore and host Andrew Winter, he brought with him a unique set of skills picked up along the way from the footy field to TV, among them, qualified mechanic, carpenter, landscaper and journalism graduate.
Image courtesy of Foxtel
The many roles of Selling Houses Australia’s Dennis Scott
It hasn’t always been an easy road for Dennis. A celebrated player for Brisbane Broncos, Canterbury Bulldogs and Melbourne Storm, he left the NRL in 2006 after concurrently completing a diploma of journalism. “It was tragic,” he says candidly. “It was like falling off the face of the earth. It was like graduating Year 12 at the age of 32 at what felt like the pinnacle, to being in the worst state I’ve ever been.”
Dennis did whatever he had to do to pay his mortgage, job-hopping and sometimes sleeping only three hours a night as he went from gig to gig. “I did everything from unloading jumbo jets to stacking shelves at Woolies at night as a second and third job to make ends meet.”
Meanwhile, he picked up a qualification for carpentry and landscaping and built up his landscape business Lush Landscapes Solutions [live link] in Queensland. He fell in love with landscaping, so when a mate tapped him on the shoulder and suggested he apply to host Selling Houses Australia, it captured his imagination. “I thought, you know what? You never know,” he says.
Joining the cast of Selling Houses Australia
The rest is history. Dennis is now filming his fourth season of the high-energy show, which demands he make over every inch of a property’s exterior in a very short time, working closely with Wendy Moore, who updates the interiors.
“I work well under pressure. If I've got time to do stuff, I leave it till the last minute anyway!” says Dennis of the show’s quick-turnaround renovations. “It's a bloody roller coaster. I absolutely love it, it's a very key piece, an integral piece of my life at the moment.”
Dennis points to rugby league as a training ground for working in a pressure-cooker environment. “Playing football prepared me with work ethic,” he says. “I was willing to work hard when I played football and I was willing to work even harder when I finished, and I knew that this wasn't going to be a walk in the park.” And yet ironically, you often feel like you are taking a walk in the park when you stroll through one of Dennis’s finished gardens!
How Selling Houses Australia’s Dennis Scott approaches each garden renovation
Taking on a whole new exterior in every episode, with no concept of what awaits, is a huge challenge. Dennis tries not to take in any preconceived ideas. “You've just got to tackle whatever's in front of you. They're all unique and individual houses and we try to approach each one with a fresh set of eyes,” he says. “And that's a huge thing with selling a house.”
What the viewers don’t see is the amount of work that goes into each and every home. “I know that people think that Wendy and I have an airconditioned van outside and we come out and we do our pieces of camera and then go back out to the van. But I tell you what, take my hat off both to Wendy and to everyone in the crew. They bloody work their butts off!”
“When the chips are down, the camera guys will put their cameras down, the sound guy will take off his ear piece and make sure that we cross the line. Everyone, everyone works bloody hard and they all deserve a medal!” ~ landscaper Dennis Scott
True bromance on Selling Houses Australia
One of the biggest surprises for Dennis when joining the show was the bond he formed with host Andrew Winter. He says cheekily, “I thought Andrew was a pompous little upstart; I had no idea what to expect! And everything you see on TV is Andrew. He's not putting it on.”
On Dennis’s first season of filming Selling Houses Australia, something unexpected happened – a worldwide pandemic. Dennis and Andrew struck up a friendship by taking a walk together every day. “He's like a windup toy. Once you get him started on talking about something that he loves, you don't have to say anything,” says Dennis.
“I know where he met his best mate in England at school under which tree it was. I know all about his Auntie Max and all his family tree. There's not a lot I don't know about Andrew.”
Dennis ended up staying at Andrew’s family home during the pandemic. “Little did I know there was list of jobs about the length of my arms to do!”
Rounding out the trio with Wendy Moore
With Wendy living in a different state to Dennis and Andrew, their friendship developed in a more organic way – on the worksite. “Wendy pretty much knows everything about me, and thankfully she still likes me,” says Dennis.
“When I went into television, I thought it would be very uptight, but the three of us, honestly, I didn't expect to walk away with two incredible best friends out of this scenario.”
Dennis Scott’s biggest achievements on Selling Houses Australia
When asked about his favourite renovations on the show, Dennis struggles to name specific properties because he thinks first not about the homes but the people.
“Certain ones sit with you because the homeowners are very warm and friendly and welcoming. You get a little bit more emotionally invested and it spurs you on that little bit extra to get all those little key pieces done,” he says.
Trish, who owned a charming but rundown church in Ellalong seen on Season 16, is one such example. “It was a very dusty job site, that one. I think I might've had a bit of a water in my eye!” he says with a laugh.
“Rosie and Sam at West Brunswick were also incredible. They just had a warmth and you could just tell that they were thankful for what transpired.”
He remains in touch with a few of the homeowners from seasons past, including Wade and Dale from Windsor Downs.”I've even house sat at Dale's house on the Gold Coast and looked after his dogs while his family was on holidays,” he says Dennis.
With the team currently filming Season 17, Dennis, Wendy and Andrew will be back on screens in 2025.
