Famed Aussie TV Host Explains What It Was Really Like To Grow Up In The Outback

Before Jamie Durie became a renowned international landscape designer, an Australian TV host or an HGTV personality, he was just a little boy growing up in Western Australia. In fact, as Durie tells “Oprah: Where Are They Now?”, most people don’t actually know that he was raised in a place far removed from the bustle and glitz of his later years on the Gold Coast.

“I was actually raised in the Outback of Australia. My brother and I were raised in a little town called Tom Price,” Durie says. “There were only a few hundred people. It was nothing but red dirt and powdered milk there were no cows out there.”

There may not have been cows, but Durie and his brother did grow up with animals around.

“We had a pet dingo and a pet kangaroo,” he says. “And my dad used to chase snakes around the backyard in his underwear with a shovel, because there were lots of deadly snakes everywhere.”

Durie moved to the Gold Coast as a teen and later took his successful television-hosting career from Australia to the States, becoming a regular contributor to “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Wherever his projects now take him, Durie has never forgotten his roots.

“Being raised in the Outback, you very quickly get a very deep understanding of true Australia,” he says.

Durie talks more about his career and his latest endeavors on this weekend’s “Oprah: Where Are They Now?”, Saturday, Dec. 17, at 10 p.m. ET on OWN. (You can also watch episodes on demand via the free Watch OWN app .)

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