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.)
Another Australian celebrity:
Related
Before You Go
