First Appearance: Episode 1 (1982)

Last Appearance: Episode 424 (1984)

Known Family: Father - Martin Healy; Mother - Patricia Hamilton; Sister - Angela Hamilton; Stepmother - Beryl Palmer; Stepsister - Susan Palmer/Todd/Hamilton; Stepbrother - Kevin Palmer; Sister-in-Law - Lynn Palmer; Step-Grandfather - Doug Palmer; Step-Grandmother - Rosie Palmer

Key Relationships:
Romance with Di Miller; Romance with Jill Taylor; Romance with Lisa Cook

Key Storylines:
John was born in c. 1961 or 1962 at Fiona Thompson's boarding house at 22 Manly Terrace, Sydney. Fiona raised the boy for the first five years of his life because his father, David Palmer, felt unable to take care of him. When John was five years old, David decided he was now prepared to raise his son, so John left Fiona's and moved to Melbourne to be with his father and his wife, Beryl, and their two children, Susan and Kevin.

In 1982, John finds himself accused of the murder of Sam Selmar, the boss at the warehouse where John works. He goes on the run and makes his way back to Sydney and Fiona's boarding house. Fiona helps him clear his name. While living in Sydney, John meets Angela Hamilton - about whom he's had several dreams over the years - and her mother, Patricia, who makes it clear that she doesn't like the socially-inept Melbournite. John and Angela start to become close - but a shocking truth then emerges: that John and Angela are twins who were separated at birth.

John decides to get to know his mother better and Gordon Hamilton gives him the opportunity to become involved in the Hamiltons' business interests. John then lands a position with Ramberg Industries - although his enthusiasm for the job is tempered when he discovers that it was arranged by Patricia, rather than him gaining it on his own merit. In his personal life, a short-lived fling with Barbara Armstrong's niece, Prue, is followed by John making rather more serious approaches towards Jill Taylor. Jill rejects him, though.

John then turns his attentions to Di Miller, a secretary at Ramberg. A serious relationship ensues and the couple almost move in together. John gets cold feet, though, and suggests to Di that they cool things. The two of them split up. John is moved to a new position in the Melbourne branch of Ramberg - where he discovers to his horror that he's his father's boss. There's a worse shock in store when David reveals to John that Patricia told him in anger that he isn't even his and Angela's father.

John decides to track down his real father and enlists the help of Patricia's sister, Margaret Dunne. It is David, though, who tells John that his father's name is Martin Healy. John tracks Martin down to the Defence Centre in Melbourne, where Martin is in the airforce. Martin initially refuses to accept that he could be John and Angela's father, but he eventually concedes that it could be true.

As he spends more and more time with Martin, John becomes increasingly enthusiastic about life in the airforce, and he decides to join up. He also begins a proper relationship with Jill and couldn't be happier. Everything seems to be going swimmingly when John heads off for ten weeks' training - until, his training nearly over, he learns that Martin his committed suicide and that Jill has married another man, Brian O'Donnel.

John quits the airforce and gets away from his problems by moving up to Woombai. Fiona offers him a job, but his attempt to instil military discipline in the men on the property don't go down well and a strike is only averted narrowly. John becomes mates with Terry Hansen and the youngster he's taken under his wing, Tony Parker.

After Terry suffers an accident which blinds him, he begins asking for a former girlfriend, Lisa Cook. Fiona asks John to track her down - and he does so. It isn't long before John and Lisa start falling in love, but Lisa shies away from telling Terry about their affair. John then learns that Terry raped Jill several months earlier. He tells Lisa what he's heard, but when Lisa says she knows Terry's background and thinks she can understand why he did it, John insists that she's to have nothing else to do with her ex-boyfriend. Lisa just accuses John of behaving petulantly and the two of them split up.

After a period of providing support for his friends and family, John receives an offer from Angela to join her and her husband, Rob Keegan, running a hotel up-north. After some initial doubts, John accepts the offer and moves away to live with the sister from whom he was separated for so much of his life.