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Doug Palmer

Doug Palmer

 

First Appearance: Episode 10
Last Appearance: Episode 398

Key Storylines:
Doug Palmer is as hot-headed as his son, David. He turns up in Melbourne for Susan and Bill's wedding and manages to alienate Lynn in the process. He reappears a year later for John and Angela's 21st birthday party, but appears to have mellowed, and once he meets Rosie Andrews, he becomes a totally different person. They end up marrying, and move away to Queensland, where they live out their days happily.


Tim Palmer

Tim Palmer

First Appearance: Episode 552
Last Appearance: Episode 746

Key Storylines:
Tim is Leigh Palmer's younger brother. He grew up in Ceedum, a small town near Queensland, with his mother, Frannie, and her second husband, George; her first husband, Ray - Tim's father and David Palmer's brother - died. After Leigh fell pregnant to a local farmboy, Richard, he made it clear that he didn't want anything more to do with her. She then threatened to tell everyone that the baby was his, but he arranged for her to be gang-raped so that no one could pin the pregnancy on him. In revenge, Leigh cut the brake cable of Richard's car, but Tim, who was keeping lookout, was spotted and the blame was pinned on him. He was subsequently committed to a Youth Detention Centre for a year.

In late-1984, Tim follows Leigh down to Sunbury, near Melbourne, where she's staying with David at his house in the country. He unwittingly becomes involved in Leigh's plot to convince Beryl that her baby son, Robert, isn't Robert at all. He also becomes good friends with Mike and Heather O'Brien, who are still grieving for their own son, Jeff. Mike almost treats Tim as a surrogate Jeff, until Tim realises what's going on. When he meets Leanne Watson, Tim is immediately smitten. Following a number of run-ins with David, he runs away with Leanne after she decides to flee from her own problems with Tracy Kingsford; however, while on the run, he falls ill and has to be taken to hospital. Upon his release, he calls Mike and Heather - who have moved to Brisbane - and agrees to go and stay with them. He departs on a sad note, though, as Leanne decides to stay in Melbourne, and he falls out with Leigh after finding out that she'd done her utmost to try to get Leanne out of his life.

A few months later, Beryl and Leigh turn up in Brisbane, and to Tim's shock, Leigh admits that the baby he helped convince Beryl wasn't hers, was. He decides to return to Melbourne for a while, and while there meets a girl called Donna Jackson. Donna is Brett Keegan's girlfriend - but when she tells Brett that she's pregnant to him, he makes it clear that he doesn't want to know. Tim is angry at Brett, but his caring nature shows through, and he soon proposes to Donna that the two of them marry. Donna is initially slightly wary, but she soon says 'yes', and she and Tim head off to stay with her parents in Ararat where they wed.

Tim returns to Melbourne with his new wife after Leigh is put on trial for kidnapping Robert. However, when he and Donna arrive, they're shocked to learn that Leigh is dead, having thrown herself under the wheels of a truck. While dealing with Leigh's death, Tim meets Jess Campbell. Despite being married, he finds himself attracted to her - and although she tries to put him off because of Donna, their feelings for each other become too much. Tim is horrified when Donna goes into labour early and gives birth to a still-born son. He's shocked when she tells him subsequently that she knows he's been having an affair with Jess and that, now that she's not pregnant, there's nothing to stop him and Jess from getting together.

Things go from bad to worse when, after a series of run-ins over how they live their lives, Donna admits to Tim that she only married him because of the baby and that, now that there is no baby, they're only tying each other down. She decides to move away to Bendigo to stay with a girlfriend. She and Tim keep writing, though, and Tim later confides in Caroline that the two of them say more to each other in their letters than they ever did face-to-face. After several weeks, Donna suggests to Tim that, if he was to go and live in Bendigo as well, there might be a good chance for them to get back together. Tim decides to go for it, and he leaves Melbourne for good.


Alice Parker

First Appearance: Episode 277
Last Appearance: Episode 384

Key Storylines:
Alice is the mother of Tony Parker. Her husband, Joe, is a career criminal with a violent streak and the love of a drink. Alice tried for years to keep her family together, but Tony ended up in jail, her other son, Dennis, ended up in a home and her daughter, Shirley, couldn't stand the way Joe treated his wife so she went to live with Alice's sister. Alice eventually makes the decision to leave her husband in late-1983 and Tony tries to help her, but when Joe starts hanging around again, David Palmer offers assistance and she and Tony move in with the Palmers. Tony frames Joe and he goes to prison, but he escapes and comes after his wife and the Palmers, catching up with them at Woombai, where he threatens to shoot them all. After Terry Hansen walks in and distracts the gunman, Alice grabs her husband's rifle and proceeds to pump four bullets into him. Joe later dies, and Alice finds herself accused of murder. She stands trial in early-1984 but is cleared following a passionate speech on her behalf by David. She and Tony move away from Melbourne to start a new life.


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