The Amazing Race Australia 9

Did You Know?

• The season premiered after Australian Survivor: Australia V The World.
• The first full promo aired on 18 August 2025, revealing the premiere date.

Production

In late January 2025, Dan Monaghan told TV Tonight that a third celebrity edition was being made, with the lineup to be announced soon. Beau Ryan then said in mid-March he was taking a break from his Triple M radio gig for several weeks to shoot the show. Teams were seen leaving Sydney Airport on 16 March 2025, and filming kicked off two days later, with the contestants revealed the day after that. This season made history as the first time any version of The Amazing Race went to Uzbekistan, shooting in Samarkand and Tersak from 24 to 27 March. It also brought the race to Nepal and Taiwan for the first time, while revisiting Sri Lanka and Indonesia, both of which appeared in season 1. A new twist called the Face Off was added, where two teams went head-to-head in a challenge. Filming wrapped on 14 April 2025.

On 18 April 2025, the Herald Sun reported that Ant & Dan were kicked out after an off-camera verbal fight with another team. According to the story, Dan Middleton started yelling at Luke & "Sassy" Scott following a night out during a break between legs. Luke & Scott later said Middleton came up to them multiple times, making homophobic comments and gestures while getting more aggressive. Brendan Fevola saw what happened and said he would leave if Middleton wasn't removed.

A Network 10 spokesperson said that after a contestant broke the production's code of conduct on a day off, a team was disqualified and sent home immediately. Ant & Dan were left out of preseason ads, appeared very little in the edited episodes before their exit, and were cut from the opening credits after the first episode. On casting, Monaghan noted the season included siblings, married couples, engaged couples, famous parents with their kids, and a few other types of relationships.

Results

The following teams are listed with their placements in each leg. Placements are listed in finishing order. A dagger indicates elimination; a double-dagger indicates the last team to arrive at a Pit Stop in a non-elimination leg, who had to perform a Speed Bump task in the following leg. An italicized and underlined placement indicates the last team to arrive at a Virtual Pit Stop, who had to perform a Speed Bump task in the following leg with no rest period.

A symbol indicates an Intersection; a symbol indicates a Face Off challenge. Gretel & Epiphany placed 8th, 5th, 2nd, 3rd, 1st, 5th, 3rd, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 4th, and then were eliminated. Melissa & Leah placed 9th, 6th, 5th, 6th, 6th, 3rd, 7th, 5th, and then were eliminated. Brendan & Leni placed 3rd, 9th, 7th, 2nd, then were eliminated, then 6th, then eliminated.

Lindy & Stella placed 12th, 8th, 8th, 9th, 5th, 8th, then eliminated. Dom & Marx placed 2nd, 1st, 3rd, 1st, 3rd, then eliminated. Steph & Ben placed 10th, 11th, 9th, then eliminated. Bronte & Benfield placed 5th, 2nd, then eliminated. Ant & Dan placed 1st, then were disqualified. Ed & Tiff were eliminated in the first leg.

Race summary

Episode 1 aired on 8 September 2025. Teams started at the Shanti Stupa in Pokhara, Nepal, and were instructed to travel to Phewa Lake, where they rowed a boat to a floating shrine and presented an offering to the goddess Barahi before retrieving their next clue. After rowing back to shore, teams traveled by marked car to Pal Ewam Namgyal Monastic School and learned a Buddhist chant in Nepali from student monks before receiving their next clue. The first Detour was a choice between Maize Rack, where teams tied 30 bundles of maize cobs and hung them on a rack, or Haystack, where teams stacked hay around a bamboo pole to a specified width and height.

After the Detour, teams checked in at the Pit Stop: Pema Ts'al Sakya Monastery. Ed & Tiff were eliminated. Episode 2 aired on 9 September 2025. In the first Roadblock, one team member rode down the world's steepest zipline at speeds up to 140 km/h. In the second Roadblock, the other team member had to seesaw their arms 13 times while balancing tingsha bells in their hands without making a sound.

Teams then booked one of two flights to Kathmandu, spent the night at WanderThirst Hostel (first four teams received private rooms, the rest slept in shared dormitories), and faced a Detour between Fur (making flower garlands for dogs as part of Kukur Tihar tradition) or Feast (eating buffalo spinal cord and buffalo stomach filled with bone marrow). The Pit Stop was Swayambhunath. Ant & Dan were disqualified.