As the show has had numerous characters since day one, it's high time we got started on one of these.
Alf Stewart
Year Introduced: 1988
Played By: Ray Meagher (with Robert Jago playing him as a Timeshifted Actor in flashbacks)
Makes sense to start with him: He's the only character to stay with the show since the first episode. He started out as the most sane member of Summer Bay's most influential family, and has since undergone considerable Character Development to become the Cool Old Guy. He has two children and two grandchildren (neither of whom use the Stewart name). He has another illegitimate daughter but she was largely forgotten after 1995.
Tropes associated with Alf:
- Cool Old Guy: This guy is the Bay.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: One other thing Alf is remembered for is using outdated Australian euphemisms.
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Memetic Molester: Rape Dungeon. - Timeshifted Actor: Played by The Faceless Robert Jaco for a 2010 story that showed him in 1987.
- Also appears as a child in flashbacks
Ailsa Stewart
Year Introduced: 1988
Played by: Judy Nunn
Tropes associated with Ailsa:
- Child by Rape: Shauna.
- Dark Secret: Wanting to break up Ailsa's recent engagement to her father, Roo had Morag do some digging on her. Even she was unprepared for what she found out; Ailsa had spent time in prison for murdering her father (although self-defence, Ailsa was sent to prison due to her total lack of remorse for the crime). Although shocked, Alf stood by her.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him
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The Other Darrin: A temporary case, as when Judy Nunn suddenly fell ill in 2000 Nancye Hayes was brought in to fill the role. Unfortunately this happened just as a big storyline was kicking off for Ailsa, as she was reunited with the daughter she'd given up for adoption as well as being forced to confront the demons of her past. - Sympathetic Murderer: The revelation of her father beating her mother and sibligs invokes this trope.
Sally Fletcher (née Copeland, previously Keating)
Year Introduced: 1988
Played By: Kate Ritchie
Second longest serving cast member (and longest serving regular female cast member), Sally first appeared in the pilot episode as a small child, when her foster family bought the caravan park from Alf. When first we saw her, she had adjusted well to her life with the Fletchers, leaving only her imaginary friend Milko. She went on to grow up before the eyes of the nation, eventually taking on a teaching job at the high school (and becoming principal after Fisher). She eventually discovered she had a long-lost brother, "Milco" (Miles Copeland), who took over her position in the cast.
Tropes associated with Sally:
- Expansion Pack Past: We weren't told about Miles until after he first appeared: her name was given as "Keating" until it changed.
- Happily Adopted: By Tom and Pippa in 1989.
Tom Fletcher
Year Introduced: 1988
Played By: Roger Oakley
Introduced with Pippa as the lynchpin couple of the show. The first episode dealt with Tom losing his job the day after his 40th birthday, with him and Pippa deciding to relocate from the city to Summer Bay to appease the social department so their foster children wouldn't be removed. Died of a stroke in 1990.
Pippa Fletcher/Ross
Year Introduced: 1988
Played By: Carole Willessee (pilot, scenes cut) Vanessa Downing (1988-90), Debra Lawrence (1990-8, with guest appearances thereafter)
Tropes associated with Pippa:
- The Other Darrin: When Vanessa Downing suddenly chose to leave the series after two years (reportedly because she missed working with Roger Oakley), rather than lose their other main character in less than a year the producers recast Pippa with Debra Lawrence. Lawrence lasted eight years with many guest-spots after and became so well-known in the role that it was easy to forget there was ever anyone else playing Pippa.
Colleen Smart (née Hickey)
Year Introduced: 1988
Played By: Lyn Collingwood
Mother to Lance (or "my Lancie" as she calls him), town gossip, and the bane of Morag's life. As Irene once said, there's no one in Summer Bay she hasn't offended at some point with her interfering gossipy ways. She recently found out she's the half-sister of Alf and Morag, much to her delight and their dismay.
Tropes associated with Colleen:
- Gossip Evolution
- Malaproper: To give one example:
- Colleen: Ah, Constable Risotto!
Angelo Rosetta: That's Sergeant Risotto now, Colleen.
- Mama Bear: To Lance
- Promotion to Opening Titles:2000.
Morag Bellingham (née Stewart)
Alf's formidable lawyer sister. Not the nicest of people when she first appeared, she's mellowed a bit over the years and now helps out with the many legal problems Summer Bay's residents get themselves into. Still not someone to cross though....
Tropes associated with Morag:
- Heel–Face Turn: After Alf suffered his brain tumour.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold
- Good Is Not Nice
- Large Ham
Donald Fisher
Year Introduced: 1988
Played By: Norman Coburn
Third-longest serving original character (although Irene has since overtaken him). Initially the school principal.
Tropes associated with Fisher:
- Early-Installment Weirdness: In the first episode, Fisher is presented as an outright villain. He is so eager to send Bobby to jail that he suggests to Tom and Pippa that they create some fake evidence, and when they refuse he begins a campaign to run them out of town. He very quickly loses these undesirable aspects and becomes a stern but Reasonable Authority Figure.
- Heel–Face Turn: After his son Alan's death.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite being a hardass, he genuinely cared for his students (Viv, Shane, Angel, etc)
Marilyn Chambers (previously Fisher)
Year Introduced: 1989
Tropes associated with Marilyn:
- Genki Girl
- Psychic Powers
- Prophecy Twist: Her 2010 storyline revolved her best friend Mitzy predicting her death. During the year, she sold her possessions and got her affairs in order...only to be dead for about 5 minutes after drowning.
Martha Mackenzie (née Stewart, previously Holden)
Tropes associated with Martha:
Daughter of Ruth "Roo" Stewart and Brett Macklin, Martha was the second character born on the show (the first was Tom and Pippa's son Christopher). She was initially given up for adoption but made her way back to the Bay many years later.
- Fatal Attractor: OK, so one guy turned out to be Not Quite Dead, but still...
- Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad
- Wangst
- Also a milder example of The Other Darrin, being played by Burcin Kapkin in her early years, with Jodi Gordon playing her when she returned.
Michael Ross
Year Introduced: 1990
Played By: Dennis Coard
Pippa's second husband, introduced six months after Tom's death when someone decided Pippa as a single mother wasn't such a good idea after all.
Tropes associated with Michael:
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute
- Heroic Sacrifice: Drowning whilst saving Sam Marshall during the floods
- Romance on the Set: Dennis Coard and Debra Lawrence married during their time on the show and are still together
Irene Roberts
Year Introduced: 1991Played By: Jacqui Phillips/Lynne Mc Granger
Another long serving character. Irene arrived as Finlay and Damian's nasty alcoholic mother. She got her drinking under control, became a permanent fixture in the various diners, and fostered a truckload of waifs and strays.
Tropes associated with Irene:
- Abusive Parents: Fin and Damien were removed from her care after she drunkenly tried to strangle them.
- The Alcoholic: In her earliest incarnation and a relapse in 2009
- Fatal Attractor: Her husband Mud was an abusive cheat, fiance Ken died not long before they were due to get married, boyfriend Barry turned out to be a murderer, and her latest boyfriend Lou was killed by Hugo.
- Heel–Face Turn: She went from a villain to a pillar of the community.
- The Other Darrin: Was played by Jacqui Phillips in her initial guest appearances. When she returned in 1993 following Fin's diving accident, she was played by Lynne Mc Granger who has remained in the role since.
- Promotion to Opening Titles: 1994 Season
- Psychic Powers: She had a premonition of Ken's death.
Leah Patterson-Baker (née Poulos, previously Patterson)
Tropes associated with Leah:
- Fatal Attractor: Two dead husbands and a boyfriend who was nearly killed by a racist gang.
- Out of Focus: For a while but she's getting more storylines now.
Miles Copeland
Originally introduced as a Spear Counterpart to Sally just before she left the show, Miles has evolved into his own character. He still retains some aspects of Sally (such as his kind and generous nature), but has developed a tendency to make odd Deadpan Snarker remarks about particularly stupid decisions he observes.
- Deadpan Snarker
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander
- (Yet another) Fatal Attractor: Lost his wife, Both Kirsty and Leah miscarried his unborn children.
- Psychic Powers (again): Weirdest example on the page: His daughter Amber appeared to him as a ghost named Rabbit. Turned out she had psychic abilities, seeing the fire at the diner, his own (possible) death and the possible deaths of Leah, VJ and Elijah
- Save Our Students
- Why Won't You Die?: Has been fated to do so twice (Stabbing and ceiling fan, respectively). Both times failed.
April Scott
Year Introduced: 2010
Portrayed By: Rhiannon Fish
- Granola Girl: At the start. Now, not so much.
- Ms. Fanservice
- Narm: The climax of her OCD storyline, arguably the best one she's ever had, occurs when Bianca throws some of her shirts onto the floor.
- The Woobie: Her OCD storyline, and the aftermath of Dexter's accident. Some consider this to be Wangst, though.
Darryl "Brax" Braxton
Year Introduced: 2011
Portrayed By: Stephen Peacocke
The Big Bad for at least some of the 2011 season, opinion is divided on whether or not he ever made a Heel–Face Turn. Mostly, he seemed to switch from being a Type II or III Anti-Hero to being a Type III Anti-Villain, depending on the storyline.
- Affably Evil: One reason why most people don't hate him.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": His name is Brax. Not Darryl. The only person who ever gets away with calling him Darryl is his mother.
- Evil Versus Evil: It helps that most of his more brutal acts are directed against people who are at least as bad as him if not worse.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Despite the numerous crimes committed by him and his family, there are some things, like rape and wife beating, that Brax is dead against. Whether or not he disapproves of threatening women seems to be a case of Depending on the Writer. Or possibly Depending on the Woman. He also scolds other River Boys for kidnapping children and elderly ladies.
- Karma Houdini: While Brax receives no legal punishment for his crimes, he has both his girlfriend and his brother murdered by his rivals. It appears for a time that he has received a final Karmic Twist Ending when an attempt to manipulate his way out of jail results in him instead having to go on the run from his latest rival, letting his family, including his newborn son, believe him to be dead...but then that's completely forgotten about and he comes out of hiding to reclaim his girlfriend and son and drive off into the sunset with him.
