australian television information archive

Martin Henderson as Zac Brennan

Zac Brennan is eighteen, the local teenage hero and son of Darcy Brennan. Zac is an energetic and sometimes rebellious youth. A likeable kid who is quick to anger, edgy, with a bit of a chip on his shoulder because he's considered to be "from the wrong side of the tracks." After being abandoned by his mother at the age of eight, Zac has been brought up by his father. There is a strong loving bond between them, however, Zac can be wild and irresponsible, showing the characteristics of a rebel.

Nevertheless, he has a rare strength of character which others instinctively recognise. He also has charm and good looks, and is a natural leader of his peers. Unable to fully understand his natural gift which makes him attractive to others he experiments with it. Girls are sometimes treated badly but Zac knows that when he really falls in love it'll be completely.

He is bright but did badly through school and takes delight in outsmarting and out-maneouvring those in authority over him. Zac's intelligence and sense of self mean that he enjoys learning but hates being taught. Zac can be gentle, loving, extremely loyal, but few people get close enough to see this side of his personality. He has a lonely, unexpressed ache for the mother he never knew. He is quick, resourceful and clever. He knows he is smarter than most people. One day, Zac knows he will be rich.

Mick Innes as Darcy Brennan

Darcy Brennan is 43, a 'dozer driver and father of Zac. He was the all round good guy with good career prospects until conscription happened. He was sent to Vietnam and served with distinction, until an innocent prank back-fired and his field promotion was removed. The details were never released.

Allan Lovell as Gordon Amadio

Gordon Amadio is 43, a single father and hopelessly in love. Gordon is a laid back, friendly good bloke. he has high moral standards and will make a stand for what he thinks is right. He is dependable, thoughtful and gently honest.

Shattered by the death of his wife ten years ago, Gordon threw himself into being a father and giving his daughter Edwina the best life he could. They are very close. Turning away from a social life, he built up the Garden Centre into the largest around. He thought he had all he needed in life, but didn't count on meeting an attractive nurse called Holly Winton. He has fallen head over heals in love and hasn't felt this alive in years. When he asks her to move in with them he cannot understand Edwina's antagonistic attitude towards Holly.

Gordon served in Vietnam but his outwardly calm and successful demeanour belies the atrocities he witnessed there. He refuses to talk ahout it, and is the only person in Echo Point who understand the demons haunting his friend Darcy Brennan.

Jessica Napier as Edwina Amadio

Edwina Amadio is Gordon's strong-willed daughter. At sixteen, Edwina is in many ways a typical adolescent girl. Intelligent, self-centred, strongly motivated and physically beautiful, she can be cruel, catty and vengeful but beneath the tough veneer is a little girl longing for love.

Alone together since her mother died ten years ago, Gordon and Edwina have a strong relationship based on love and survival. She's proprietorial about her father and enjoys manipulating him, and he enjoys letting her think she's getting away with it.

Frannie Loman is Edwina's best friend and although they are the same age Edwina looks up to Frannie. She does what she wants but would rather have Frannie's approval first. The best of friends, they discuss the meaning of life, the environment and boys.

Edwina has no trouble attracting boys — she enjoys the attention and is aware of the power she has over them. All except Zac. She is head over heels about Zac and is frustrated that she can't get him as easily as the others.

Edwina's life has been going smoothly, until her father finds a girlfriend. When Holly Winton comes along a torrent of emotions hit Edwina like a thunderbolt — jealousy, betrayal and fear of losing her fathers love. She vows to get rid of Holly, no matter what.

Kimberly Davenport as Holly Winton

Holly is Gordon's fiancée. At the relatively tender age of 29 Holly finds herself posted as Nursing Unit Manager at a busy teaching hospital. Good natured and friendly she has adapted well to life in Echo Point, and not only made friends easily but found her first true love in Gordon Amadio.

True to her profession Holly likes being in charge and has a highly developed sense of order and her own way of doing things. For all of this however, she is not completely insensitive, and when she agrees to move in with Gordon she understands how difficult it must be for his daughter Edwina and tries to make allowances for her possessive behavour.

Sensual and passionate Holly adores Gordon and nothing, certainly not the machinations of his strong willed daughter, will stand in the way of this chance at happiness.

Phillip Gordon as Daniel Blake

Daniel Blake, 33, is a rich and mysterious man revisiting his tragic past. In Echo Point, people are surprised and intrigued to find him back. Fifteen years ago both his parents were brutally murdered and Daniel was arrested for the crime.

Though there was insufficient evidence for the case to be tried and Daniel was released, the people of Echo Point have never ceased to speculate on the truth behind the grisly events of that night in their own backyard. Daniel has returned to face his demons and claim his inheritance.

Roxane Wilson as Coral O'Connor

Coral, 31, believes life is to be lived — and live it she does, even though it seems to deal her more than her fair share of hard knocks. She is the mother of Belinda, whose father died shortly after he and Coral were married. At least that's the story Belinda has grown up with, although the truth is altogether more alarming and is Coral's secret.

Coral works for Maurie at the Bakery. He is like a father to her having taken her in during one of her darker times and given her a job and a chance to make her own way in life. Damaged by her first experience of love, Coral has had no time for romance — but the truth is she is more than a little scared. It will take a very special and patient man to win her trust.

Rose Byrne as Belinda O'Connor

Belinda O'Connor is 15, Coral's daughter and a schoolgirl dreamer. Belinda is "nice" — all her friends will tell you that. With no enemies, she dearly wants her friends to like her as much as she likes them. A schoolgirl romantic she belives in happy endings.

Naturally pretty, she flirts instinctively. Uncomplicated, trusting and open, she is a little unsure of herself but is the sort of person others, particularly males, want to look after. Belinda cries in movies and strongly believes in the stars of the zodiac.

Brought up by her mum, Coral, in a single-parent household, Belinda has never known her father. In an otherwise happy life, this is the single note of darkness. Belinda feels, dearly and deeply, this lack. All the other girls have fathers she envies them the presence in their lives of a powerful male figure, if only she could have one in hers.

Sean Scully as Neville Loman

Neville Loman is 44, a travelling sales rep, a father and a philanderer. Neville has made his way through life using his personality rather than his mind. He was convinced that he would be good in a "people" job, and after several misadventures, he landed his present position as Sales Representative for a pharmaceutical company. Neville has the feeling that it is an inferior job — the sort the good salesmen wouldn't touch, but he suppresses the thought.

Victoria Nicholls as Trish Loman

Trish Loman is 43, a mother and the owner of The Shed café. Trish has three kids, Dean, Frannie, and Lisa — and for the last seventeen years she has made them her life.

Diarmid Heidenreich as Dean Loman

Dean Loman is seventeen, and a schoolboy scammer. Blessed by good luck and blue eyes, Dean is a youthful wheeler-dealer who knows the angles and the buzz words. He is optimistic, irrepressible and always on the move.

Rebecca Murphy as Frannie Loman

Frannie Loman is sixteen-years-old and the brightest girl in school. The world should be Frannie's oyster. She reads voraciously, is always probing and questioning, and is the apple of her father's eye. She has an intelligent and sincere commitment to any of the causes she embraces and protecting the environment is just one of them. Although she would like to become a marine biologist, she also sees herself as Australia's answer to Annie Leibovitz, and constantly carries her camera, snapping the local life and developing her works of art in the laundry at home.

Haley Phillips as Lisa Loman

Lisa Loman is ten, a high spirited kid and sister to Dean and Frannie. Lisa is very much Daddy's little girl, learning at an early age that she could twist Neville around her little finger. She is sharp and vibrant in her outlook, adopting much of Frannie's intelligence and some of Deans cunning — a deadly combination in someone so young.

David Woodley as Hopper Hadley

Hopper is 30, a sometime surfie and soon to be co-owner of The Shed, Ever since he was eighteen, Hopper believed he was set for a career as a surfing pro. But as tournaments came and went, so did the years and he never quite made the grade. Ready to give up the gypsy lifestyle, Hopper sees a great chance for a new life and stability in helping his sister out at The Shed.

He is genial, warm-hearted, slow to anger and very protective of his sister. Hopper has a great way with all types of people and a million ideas on how he could improve the business — if only he hadn't borrowed the money for his share from Daniel Blake.

Tom Long as Dave Campbell

Dave Campbell is nineteen, a Garden Centre worker and an artist. The son of artistic bohemians, Dave is rebelling against his upbringing in a noisy whirl of eccentrics. He doesn't remember a home — only endless days on the road.

After arriving at Echo Point and following a name change, Dave feels he has become an individual and settled for the first time in his life. He is thriving on the certainty of full time work at the Garden Centre, and in his spare time paints and sketches, although he would never show anyone his work. Dave is quiet and friendly with perhaps a little more to him than meets the eye.

Louise Crawford as Shelley Radcliffe

Eighteen-year-old Shelley is Holly's niece and Marty's big sister. Shelley loved living and working on the family property in remote Gundawinda, but was also fascinated by the city. Sadly their mother was diagnosed with cancer and Shelley did everything possible to nurse and care for her. It was a long and emotionally draining experience, but when their mother dies, Shelley and Marty move in with their Aunt Holly.

Shelley is lively, not overly academic, big hearted, unselfish and takes responsibility easily and often. Marty and she are very close especially in light of their father's remoteness. Encouraged by Holly to put her grief behind her and concentrate on her own dreams, she starts work in a busy city hospital. This gives her a sense that there is more to life — and she intends to find out what it is.

Jack Ellis as Marty Radcliffe

Marty Radcliffe, sixteen, is Holly's nephew and Shelley's brother. Following the death of their mother, Marty and his sister Shelley come to stay in Echo Point with their Aunt Holly. Marty is gentle and sensitive. He has felt very deeply the premature loss of his mother to cancer and has suffered under the strong hand of a stern father. Initially Marty is angry and defensive and it takes him some time to settle into his new home but due mainly to Gordon's understanding and perseverance he accepts he is in Echo Point to stay.

John Clayton as Maurie Barnard

Maurie, sixty, is the crusty owner of the Bakery Café. He is a short tempered, irascible old baker who is at his calmest and most congenial when in the process of baking. He is the adopted dad to Coral, and adores her and Belinda, but would never admit it. In his late twenties Maurie had his heart broken when he was abandoned at the altar. He still carries the bitterness and has never married.