TRIGGER WARNING: This article discusses miscarriage. Reader discretion is advised.
Despite their experience working in one of Australia’s toughest professions, as police officers, Britt and Taz say The Block has pushed them to their limits in ways their day job doesn’t.
“I don’t mind going to work and pushing myself hard at work – I’m trained to do it and I absolutely love doing it,” Taz, 30, told TV WEEK. “But building isn’t my area of expertise – as the first few weeks have given away!”
Britt and Taz are The Block’s second police couple to join the renovation series – following in the footsteps of Alisa and Lysandra.
While Britt, 30, has been a police officer for seven years, Taz has been an officer for four years having previously worked as a youth custodial officer in WA’s only youth detention centre.
The couple admit they have both faced some tough situations throughout their careers.
“We go into dangerous situations every shift,” says Taz, an Aboriginal man from the Dharawal People, south of Sydney.
“Where we work [across remote Western Australia] you don’t really have back-up. You’ve got to rely on your voice and talking your way through situations.”
“I’ve been threatened before,” recalls Britt. “People have said they were going to kill me and my kids. It can take quite a toll on you mentally.”
“I’ve wanted to apply for The Block for about six years now, however the timing was never right between the academy training, being fresh into our policing careers and starting our family,” Britt admitted.
“At the end of the day, we could win nothing, so we really want to have a good time because at least we can look back and say, ‘I can’t believe we did that and what fun it was!’”.
Ten years ago, when Taz had only recently moved to WA, the lovebirds met on Tinder. At the time, Britt had only just exited a “bad relationship,” but it was “love at first sight.”
“We both absolutely were not looking for anything serious,” Britt admitted. “However, when we first met, it was literally love at first sight.”
“We moved in together after three months, went travelling with a one way ticket after six months, bought our first block of land within 12 months and built our house.
“Love works in mysterious ways! Our relationship works off a basis of were each other’s biggest supporters and best friend, we truly love, cherish and respect each other.”
Six years into their relationship, the duo expanded with Carter, 4, who is a “mini Taz” and Myla, 2, who is Britt’s “mini me.”
Sadly, Britt and Taz suffered a miscarriage, confessing to TV WEEK it was the biggest adversity they’ve had to overcome.
“When we lost our baby girl Hazel through a miscarriage, we were around 14/15 weeks and about to announce it to all our friends and family when we lost her,” they shared.
“Right at the time of going through this Taz was completing his weapons training in the academy so we couldn’t really process it and had to focus on getting him through his training. We took some time after he had finished the academy to work through it together.”
The pair hope that by speaking openly about their miscarriage, they can “help break that stigma.” But it isn’t the only aspect their proudly representing on The Block.
“We’re wearing a lot of hats and that comes with responsibility,” they said.
“We’re representing WA police and that of officers across the country and we have to ensure we hold ourselves to a high standard, we’re representing indigenous Australians and showing kids anything is possible.”
If you or someone you know has been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, help is always available. You can call the Red Nose support line on 1300 308 307 or visit the website.
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