A few major changes were made this season. Jez Smith returned as part of the judging panel for the first time since the third season, and Jonathan Pease was replaced by fashion icon Josh Flinn, due to the former's work conflicts. Filming took place from May through June 2010. The number of contestants this season was increased from 13 to 16. The model house was located on 21 Hunter St, in Sydney's eastern suburb of Dover Heights. In contrast to the previous three seasons, the viewer vote entirely determined the winner and placements of each contestant during the live finale. Beginning this season, there was also a shift in the series' tone, with less focus being placed on quarrels among the contestants.
Requirements
All contestants had to be aged 16 or over in order to apply for the show. Those auditioning had to be at least tall. To qualify, all applicants had to be an Australian citizen currently living in Australia. Additional requirements stated that a contestant could not have had previous experience as a model in a national campaign within the last five years, and if a contestant was represented by an agent or a manager, she had to terminate that representation before the competition.
Auditions
Auditions were held on 16–17 January in Sydney, on 19–20 January in Brisbane, on 21 January in Bendigo, on 23 January in Adelaide, and on 24 January in Perth.
Due to an error during the live finale broadcast, Kelsey Martinovich was initially announced as the winner. Consequently, she won several prizes usually reserved for the winner; including a 25,000 cash prize, an all expenses paid trip to New York City to meet with potential modeling agents and a dulled cover and spread in Harper's Bazaar Australia. The magazine decided to split the cover of the November issue, printing half featuring Amanda on the cover and the other featuring Kelsey, as there were only three votes separating the two contestants. In the days following the airing of the live final, the show was accused of feigning the botched announcement as a publicity stunt. Concerning accusations targeted toward Sarah Murdoch, judge Alex Perry commented: "There's no way that she would do that. I think you saw that the instant that she knew something was wrong, you could see it in her eyes, that wasn't lying, that wasn't acting. Everybody wants to tag something sinister on it and say it was done for ratings I know Sarah and I know the executive producer, it's just not their style, they have too much integrity" Sarah Murdoch later made an appearance with the finalists for an exclusive interview on A Current Affair, in which she went into detail over the incident. In it, Murdoch expressed her dismay: "I still feel sick about it, I mean, I'm still in shock about it. We'd had such a brilliant show, and amazing series to begin with, a fantastic live show, and in the last minute everything went wrong." When questioned about the stunt accusations and accurate vote count, Murdoch affirmed that everything had gone as intended, and it had simply been a miscommunication.
