It’s been a year since Neighbours made its return with a so-called ‘New Chapter’ on Amazon Freevee and what an amazing DRAMA-packed year it has been!
Fans were heartbroken in 2022 when it was announced that the Australian soap was coming to an end after 37 years.
But then Amazon decided to revive Neighbours and since it returned on 18 September 2023, it’s come back bigger, better and stronger!
There have been weddings, blossoming romances and friendships forged.
A marriage has broken down, lovers have broken up and friends have fallen out.
We’ve seen murders, kidnappings and deaths, not to mention multiple near-death experiences!
And let’s just say Erinsborough Hospital has never been busier!
Plus, we saw the full-time return of tuba-playing Harold Bishop (Ian Smith)!
We’ve also seen a new family move into Ramsay Street after Cara (Sara West) and Remi Varga-Murphy (Naomi Rukavina) bought No.30 where they live with their boys JJ (Riley Bryant) and Dex (Marley Williams).
There have been some fun moments, too, of course! Who can forget Susan Kennedy (Jackie Woodburne) trying to spare her blushes with an enormous hat?!
All in all, just another typical year in the lives of the people who live in Erinsborough!
Here, we look back at some of the biggest stories from the past 12 months…
1. Toadie and Terese’s Wedding
The soap’s return got off to a jawdropping start and hooked us in straight away with a twist that we just didn’t see coming.
It had been just over a year since its last episode on Channel 5 which saw Toadie Rebecchi (Ryan Moloney) and Melanie Pearson (Lucinda Cowden) tie the knot and have a big reception in the middle of Ramsay Street.
But when the soap returned, the story jumped two years forward and began with the Erinsborough locals looking forward to another wedding.
The last time we saw Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis) and Terese Willis (Rebekah Elmaloglou), the former couple declared their love for each other so it looked as though they were getting married.
But as Harold, Jane (Annie Jones), Karl (Alan Fletcher) and the other neighbours gathered for the nuptials at Leo’s (Tim Kano) vineyard Yorokobi, it soon became clear that while Terese was indeed the bride, her groom wasn’t Paul – it was Toadie!
Wait. What?
So what had happened in the intervening two years? Why weren’t Paul and Terese a couple? And where the heck was Melanie?
2. Flashback Week
There were more ‘WOW!’ moments when the events of the previous two years were revealed in flashback over four drama-packed episodes in November 2023.
It solved some of the mysteries that had kept viewers guessing since the soap returned and it seemed Melanie had all the answers when she returned to Ramsay Street…
In the two-year gap, some of the unexpected events that had happened included Paul jilting Terese at the altar and Melanie suddenly deciding to leave Toadie.
Added to this was an ongoing mystery involving Reece Sinclair (The OC star Mischa Barton), the daughter of Conrad Sinclair, who had recently invested in Lassiters. Initially, she posed as a guest at the hotel, going by the name of Reece Peters, but it later transpired that she had come to Erinsborough to look for her sister Krista, who had vanished without trace.
It turned out all three stories were connected, with others – including David Tanaka (Takaya Honda), Aaron Brennan (Matt Wilson), Nicolette Stone (Hannah Monson) and Holly Hoyland (Lucinda Armstrong-Hall) – also caught up in the drama.
3. Save Erinsborough High!
What started out as a peaceful protest ended in disaster at Erinsborough High in December 2023. The school was all set to be bulldozed after Terese Willis bought the site to build her retirement village Eirini Rising, which didn’t help her friendship with principal Jane Harris, who was left fuming by what her so-called friend had planned!
In a last-ditch attempt to save the school, Wendy Rodwell (Candice Leask) and her daughter Sadie (Emerald Chan) formed an unlikely alliance with Nicolette Stone to stage a protest outside the school.
A gang of former pupils including Brett Stark (Brett Blewitt), Melissa Jarrett (Jade Amenta) and Michelle Scully (Kate Keltie) returned to join in the effort, while local celebrity, Summer Hoyland (Jordy Lucas), radio presenter for Rise FM, reported on the protest in a live broadcast.
Unfortunately, things got way out of hand when protesters broke into the school and rampaged through the building and when teacher Marty Muggleton (Nikolai Egel) got into a tussle with a security guard, poor Melanie got caught up in the melee and taking a tumble down some stairs.
As she lay unconscious on the floor, it looked like she was goner until her ex Toadie came to her rescue…
4. Chloe and Elly’s wedding
In December 2023, Chloe Brennan (April Rose Pengilly) and Elly Conway (Jodi Gordon) tied the knot just two weeks after getting engaged.
Chloe had left her girlfriend Elly at home in Sydney while she helped out Paul at Lassisters, but she was hiding a secret… she was hiding the fact that she had started to experience symptoms of Huntington’s disease, but hadn’t told her other half.
When Elly came to visit, Chloe revealed all and offered to end their relationship to spare Elly and her daughter Aster from seeing her decline like her mum Fay, who also had Huntington’s.
Elly, however, wasn’t having that. Vowing to stay by Chloe’s side through thick and thin, she proposed!
5. Chelsea Murphy’s Scheming
Chelsea Murphy (Viva Bianca) unexpectedly turned up at No.30 in January 2024, ostensibly to see her sister Cara Varga-Murphy and her nephews Dex and JJ.
However, it was later revealed that she had actually come to Erinsborough because she was broke and thought a certain local businessman with loads of cash could be the answer to her problems. So she quickly set her sights on seducing Paul Robinson…
The pair became an item and Chelsea installed herself as manager of Lassiters while Paul grieved in the wake of his son David’s death.
As she was left to run the hotel, she got into a feud with Krista Sinclair (Majella Davis) which escalated when Chelsea locked her pregnant rival in the sauna room causing her to lose her baby.
Chelsea attempted to cover her tracks by blaming it on hotel worker Penny Shrewster (Jessica Husband), but the truth soon came out in the most awks of circumstances – at her and Paul’s engagement party!
Needless to say the engagement is off and Chelsea hasn’t been seen since fleeing quicker that you can say what a scheming what-not!
6. David’s devastating death
A trip to the country in February 2024 ended in tragedy when David Tanaka died after saving his brother Leo Tanaka from being attacked by evil Eden Shaw (Costa D’Angelo).
The brothers had decided to take a break with their partners Aaron Brennan and Krista Sinclair, and Nicolette Stone tagging along for the ride.
But after being tipped off by Paul, Eden – who had just been released from prison – turned up to confront Krista about being pregnant with his child and got into a tussle with Leo.
As Eden picked up a rock above Leo’s head, ready to strike, David swooped in and dived at Eden, but while he saved his brother, David and Eden tumbled down the side of an embankment.
Initially, David seemed to be okay as convinced Leo, Krista and Aaron to get Eden to hospital, but he was hiding the fact that he had been seriously injured,
So when Aaron and Leo returned to get him, they found that he had passed away, but not before recording an emotional final message to Aaron on his phone…
7. Haz’s CYBERCRIME past
In April 2024 it was revealed that friendly coffee shop owner Haz Devkar (Shiv Palekar) had come to Erinsborough to escape a shady, criminal past as a highly-skilled computer hacker… Who woulda thunk it?
The revelation came in the wake of some Ramsay Street residents becoming cybercrime victims, including Jane Harris, who was mortified when a saucy deepfake video of her unpeeling a banana while dressed in sexy outfit did the rounds at Erinsborough High.
It was all down to one of Haz’s victims – Wade Fernsby (Stephen Phillips) – who blamed Haz and his hacker mates for ruining his life and sought revenge by targeting Haz and his Ramsay Street pals.
And Wade had obviously decided that if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, because it transpired that he had become a cybercriminal and wanted Haz to help him with his hacking activities.
Haz agreed but we soon discovered that he was actually working undercover for the police!
Unfortunately, the sting went awry when Wade rumbled Haz and did a runner, but as Haz chased after him he was accidentally hit by a car – driven by Haz’s girlfriend Mackenzie Hargreaves (Georgie Stone) – and he ended up spending the next couple of weeks in a coma!
8. The ‘Dr Pooper’ Mystery!
Karl Kennedy was dubbed ‘Dr Pooper’ when he was wrongly accused of pooping in bushes all over Erinsborough in May 2024.
The doctor had gone on a health kick ahead of a photoshoot for a billboard ad for Eirini Rising where he was due to work as the resident doctor and wellbeing expert.
But when Karl was caught short on a bike ride with Melanie Pearson, her blabbing led him to being blamed for defecating all over town!
Determined to find the real culprit, Karl found out that a member of a local cycling club called the YAHMILs (Young and Hot Males in Lycra) had been spotted crouching in a bush, so he enlisted the help of Aaron Brennan to infiltrate the group and identify the pooper.
Turned out it was Jacob Burchmore (Sam Ludeman), grandson of tricky Eirini Rising resident Shirley Burchmore (Suzy Cato-Gashler). Suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome, he had been having Code Brown situations while cycling with his YAHMIL mates.
9. The Erinsborough Poisoner
A mystery poisoner was on the loose in Erinsborough after young Dex Varga-Murphy took a swig of some wine that landed him in hospital in June 2024.
The teen drank the booze on the sly at the launch of Eirini Rising.
Leo Tanaka had supplied the drinks from his vineyard Yorokobi where someone had snuck into the storeroom and injected poison into one of the bottles.
After Holly blabbed to podcaster Liv Bellen (CeCe Peters), who shared details about the poisoning on her ‘Crimesborough’ podcast, it caused serious problems for Leo as he began to lose business.
Feeling guilty, Holly went into Miss Marple mode as she took it upon herself to crack the case, but her sleuthing landed her in danger when she caught Dr Gavin Bowman (Cameron MacDonald) in the act!
Banged to rights, Bowman left Holly gagged and bound in his bath while he planned to make his getaway, but was stopped in his tracks by colleague Remi Varga-Murphy, cop Andrew Rodwell (Lloyd Will) and Holly’s dad Karl Kennedy.
10. Death in the Outback
It was another big week for Neighbours in August 2024 when some of our Ramsay Street favourites found themselves in danger in the Australian Outback.
Holly Hoyland agreed to join hot American Heath Royce (Ethan Panizza) on a trip to the Outback, but what she thought was going to be a romantic getaway turned into a flamin’ nightmare!
Heath had been sent to the Outback to tie up some loose ends for his other lover Tess Carmichael (Anica Calida), who he was helping to swindle millions of dollars from the SinCast corporation.
But their plan began to unravel when Toadie and Melanie did some digging on Heath which led them to being kidnapped and held hostage at an old cattle station in the Outback.
Meanwhile, when no one heard from Holly, Toadie and Melanie, Mackenzie and Haz decided to go and find them while their worried friends and family waited for news.
As the epic week reached a dramatic conclusion, Holly almost died after being pushed into a silo of corn by Heath, Mackenzie was accidentally shot, Toadie was temporarily lost in the middle of nowhere and someone ended up becoming a crocodile’s lunch!
Neighbours airs Monday to Thursday at 7:00am on Amazon Freevee