Amanda Vale
Amanda Vale (2005-2007; 2008; 2009)
Holly Brisley
Episodes: 3994–4422; 4582–4585; 4906–4907, 4916–4917
Parents: Kitty Landsdowne
Siblings: Kelli Vale
Marital status: Dan Baker (divorced); Graham Walters (2005-2006, deceased); Peter Baker (2007-present)
Children: Belle Taylor (deceased) & Ryan Baker
Step Children: Beth Hunter (former, deceased); Drew Curtis
Occupation: Actress; Drama Teacher; Director; Businesswoman
Amanda was first heard of in 2004 when Dan Baker arrived in Summer Bay and started a relationship with Leah Patterson. Leah soon found out about Dan having a wife and a son, and so through Nick Smith via Hayley he found out about Dan’s ex-wife being actress Amanda Vale and his son. This was however, no hindrance to Dan and Leah’s relationship, and despite problems when Amanda set Ryan to live with Dan and Leah for a week, and they were soon to get married. A week before the planned wedding, Amanda turned up with Ryan in tow and despite appearing to get on with Leah on the surface, a number of setbacks mysteriously his Leah and Dan’s wedding.
Peter uncovered at the reception that it was in fact Amanda who had been cancelling the caterers etc, forcing Dan and Leah to ask Amanda to leave the reception, and after that she left Summer Bay. However, she was back a month later now working at Summer Bay High as a drama teacher, with huge debts and with nowhere to stay.
With her debts racking up, Leo Simms came to the bay to try and collect some of the money that she owed. Meeting up in the middle of the night she met up with Leo and gave him the money. However on counting it, he realised that there was not all the money and there and tried to stop Amanda getting away. Amanda in her panic, wound her window up trapping Leo’s fingers. She then wound the window down to release Leo, causing him to hit his head against the road. When she went back to him he was bleeding and not breathing, so she dumped him in the bush, planted her jewellry on him before going back to Leah’s place and trashing it. After that she went to the police whereupon the finding of Leo’s body later, they believe Amanda and that the case is closed.
With Leah away to Europe, Dan offered Ryan and Amanda a place at Leah’s house. Scott Hunter soon fell for Amanda’s charms, but when Leah returned home to find Scott and Amanda half naked on her couch, she threw Amanda out her house. Homeless again, Scott found Amanda a place to live alongside two of her students, Robbie and Tasha.
Despite Robbie initially feeling uneasy about having a teacher as a tenant they agreed and Amanda moved in. After receiving this news, she was sent a text asking her to say “Say hi to my friends in Summer Bay”. However, this wasn’t the end of Amanda causing trouble, more just the start as she soon found herself at loggerheads with Kit and Beth. After killing Ryan’s pet cockroach in an attempt to cause problems for Beth at the bar, at Kim and Hayley’s engagement party where she played upon Kit’s past alcohol problems and spiked her drink. After this, Kit followed Amanda out to a motel where she manages to get pictures of Amanda kissing someone else. Amanda sees her and tries to stop her, but Kit manages to get back to the surf club where she can show Beth and Scott the evidence. Amanda chased Kit back to the surf club where she knocks the phone out of Kit’s grasp and onto the floor. When Kit grabs the phone it doesn’t work and the evidence is gone and Amanda escaped again.
However, Amanda being Amanda, this only lasts until the end of the episode, when moving boxes around at the apartment, Scott and Robbie find the missing money from the show. Amanda had stolen it in an attempt to pay off her debts, but there was nothing she could do, but give it back to Colleen who was overjoyed.
Later that same afternoon, Dr Free came around to give Scott some confidential information she had discovered at the hospital. Amanda took it and said that she would give it to Scott when he returned home. Scott then returned home telling Amanda the tragic news that Dr Free had crashed her car and had been killed. Amanda doesn’t give the Scott the information, she gets on and phones Daryll wanting her paternity test redone. Amanda then heads over to the hospital where she takes advantage of a young lab tech called Bert, who hands over the samples and Amanda then hands the samples over to Daryll. Daryll, then tells her, that if she is any cash problems he would get her work with Cameron. After a call again from the as yet, unnamed character, saying he was coming to the bay.
Amanda agrees, and ends up doing some topless modelling for Cameron. However when he asks to remove her bottoms, however she declines it and gets a call from Ryan reminding her about the school play. However she misses him and returns, shattered to her apartment.
Daryll then returns back to her with the news that Hayley’s child is also Scott’s. She rushed out of the surf club where she was hit by Irene’s car. Amanda is rushed to hospital, where Hayley almost finds out the paternity results. Amanda is given the all clear and soon out of hospital, when the person chasing her for the money is revealed, Josh West.
Josh immediately makes Amanda steal the Summer Bay electoral register, announcing that he is planning to run for mayor. Her errands for Josh lead to a missed dinner with Scott and as things have become strained between the two, Scott decides to move out for a while. Later that week, Amanda gets it out of Scott that he loves Hayley and not Amanda and hurt by this, she heads out to sea just as a storm hits Summer Bay.
Scott chases after Amanda and after the storm hits Summer Bay, before are missing. However the next morning, they are both ashore and found by the SES. When Tony brings them back ashore, Hayley was waiting for Scott, causing Amanda to blurt out that she is pregnant and the father is Scott’s. Back to Bert Biddle then, who Amanda again works her charm and he manages to secure her an ultrasound. However, Amanda was not the only one to have struck a deal with Bert, Josh wanted Bert to contact if Amanda ever got in contact with him again and sure enough, Bert let Josh know of what Amanda was up to and Josh, knowing that the pregnancy is faked, blackmails Amanda into helping him with mayoral campaign, which Josh eventually won.
However, this didn’t release her from Josh’s plans, it only made her more involved and she only had herself to blame. After hearing Morag and Alf talking about a certain Project 56, Amanda rushed over to the see what this was all about and almost succeeded in alerting Morag about it, but she came face to face with Josh, who raced over to the diner flat where he got the other copy. Morag, then confronted Amanda with the knowledge that Josh and Amanda had shared a flat in LA. To end this week Amanda then sees Hayley and Scott kissing and pushed over the edge, she trashes the apartment.
With Scott now lost, and carrying his non-existent child, Amanda had no option but to have a non-existent miscarriage. Josh then offered Amanda a job spearheading Project 56, he couldn’t do it, he’s the mayor. Amanda initially turns down Josh’s proposal, but after a trick by her students featuring a toy baby and then Robbie confronting her at the school where she slaps him, Hyde suspends and Amanda tells him he can stick his job and decides to join Josh on Project 56.
Beth’s father, Graham had returned to the bay, and after Amanda hears that he’s got 2 million dollars from the farm, she sets her sights on Graham as the way of getting Josh off her back. When Graham decides to go bushwalking, Amanda follows him before tripping over and Graham comes to the damsel in distress. However she has forgotten she had to pick up Ryan and Dan decides that she needs to be kept away from their son.
Things go for bad to worse, when at the end of the episode she has to kiss Graham. She managed to get him and now her plan was in motion. Within weeks she was engaged to Graham, but with Josh pointing out that they did not have time, Graham and Amanda were married immediately in the Season finale. However, it wasn’t exactly love ever after, with Amanda seeing Josh behind Graham’s back.
Now that she had managed to marry Graham, the next step was for Amanda to get her hands on his money. However Graham was becoming increasingly suspicious of what Amanda was up to and he too managed to get hold of the Project 56 documents and planned to frame Amanda and Josh, and get out of what he now realised was a faux marriage. However when Graham revealed to Amanda that he did in fact have copies of the papers, he suffered a heart attack. Amanda was initially unsure what to do and was about to leave Graham there to die, but Josh told her because of the terms of Graham’s will, they needed to keep him alive.
Once in hospital, Amanda brought her acting skills to the fore and played the grieving widow to a T. Unfortunately for Amanda though, Graham woke up and again threatened to reveal what he knew, but suffered another, more severe heart attack which left him effectively dead.
With Beth and the other Hunters wanting Graham’s machine turned off, it was taken to court where Josh organised a judge who owed him a favour and Amanda was guaranteed a win. Despite this court win, Graham wasn’t alive for much longer as someone snuck into the hospital and turned the life support machine off.
With Graham now dead, Amanda faced losing his inheritance, however by the time the wills was read out, Josh had managed to get a copy of the old will back and Amanda was bequeathed Graham’s estate, even his war medals, though in moment of compassion she later gave them back to the Hunters.
Amanda now believed that was her finished with Josh, that she could wipe her hands of him, but she was now too deep into his plans and any escape was futile. As the head of the company Amanda needed to be there when Project 56 was launched and threatened her with violence, including a few occasions where Ryan was put at danger. Angered by this Amanda went to Josh’s office with a gun, but it was wrestled off of her and she agreed to front the presentation with him. Josh, however, did not turn up the following day as he had been shot, but by who?
Amanda was a suspect and most of the evidence seemed to be incriminating her. However just as Peter was about to press charges, evidence for a police traffic camera caught Amanda somewhere else at the time Josh was shot and Amanda was free to go. She hadn’t killed Josh. Dan took Amanda back to the appartment where Amanda told him exactly what was behind the mess that had been the six months. After sharing a kiss, Amanda left with Ryan leaving Dan distraught.
Two months later, Amanda returned to Summer Bay, moving into a large mansion and with a move to make. Her mother, Kitty, appeared soon afterwards, claiming that she was ill. Kitty was now not the only person in Summer Bay related to Amanda, Kitty also knew that Belle Taylor was the child that Amanda thought she had miscarried when she was sixteen. Amanda and Belle, both unaware of this were constantly at each others throats, until Morag pieced it all together and revealed that Belle was Amanda’s daughter. Not news that Belle particularly wanted to hear.
Amanda told her mum to leave, hurt at the news that she had kidnapped her baby right after it was born whilst Amanda then hoping to get to know her daughter had her hopes dashed when Belle was on the ill-fated helicopter. In an attempt to save her daughter and all others involved, Amanda continued to fund the search for a few weeks, without any luck, until her money ran out. After calling off the final search and mourning the lost in the diner, Amanda felt a pain in her leg that alerted her to the fact that Belle was still alive and the next morning they found them.
Amanda wanted to get to know her daughter, so Irene decided that Amanda could come see Belle at set time, but she ended up with her arm trapped in a filter in the pool and so missed the appointment, leaving both Irene and Belle believing that Amanda didn’t really want to get to know her daughter. Amanda then started showering Belle with gifts in an effort to make it happy, whilst Irene turned Belle’s wishes down in an attempt to discipline her and soon after Belle moved in with Amanda and finally Amanda was living with her two children.
Amanda began to see more and more of Belle’s boyfriend, Drew Curtis after Belle moved in and things came to a head when Drew dumped Belle to be with Amanda. Amanda initially turned him down, but there were a few kisses shared by the two. Belle inevitably found and left Amanda for Irene, leaving Amanda heartbroken.
Amanda soon found love with Peter Baker, Drew’s dad. Although initially keeping their relationship a secret, they eventually came clean eventually admitting the truth to the disgust of the majority of people, especially and including Drew.
When Belle was abducted by a guy from the Surf Club. Amanda was distraught but some comfort was provided when, on the same night, her sister Kelli arrived. Having been badly injured in a car crash, that Amanda, the driver, walked away from, Kelli explained she was there to make amends. She soon made herself useful by helping the police locate Belle but what only the audience knew was that Kelli was in fact behind the abduction. Bitter after the vents of the accident, she was back in town hellbent on making Amanda’s life a misery.
Taking advice of the trust issues Peter had with Amanda, Kelli sent Amanda flowers with a note suggesting they were from another guy. Amanda managed to persuade Peter that she was innocent and Kelli took advantage of a guilty Peter and persuaded him to propose. He duly did and they began planning the wedding.
Kelli was still plotting though and ordered her boyfriend Ethan to start hitting on Amanda, though she remained loyal to Peter. However after a huge row Amanda headed to Noah’s where Ethan took advantage of her drunken despair to drug her. Waking up in his bed Amanda had noi dea what had happened and was horrified when Ethan said they had slept together. He later phoned Kelli explaining that there mission had been successful; he had taken pictures of Amanda in bed with him.
Using the pictures against her, Ethan then blackmailed Amanda, forcing her first to steal Morphine from the hospital and then to make the sale. Taking Kelli Amanda made the sale but when Ethan spotted Kelli in he car he went mad and began to chase Amanda.
With Kelli dragging her to the car, they began to drive off but Ethan hung off the car window, eventually falling and hitting his head. Kelli ran back to check he was alive then returned to the car, screaming he was dead and urging Amanda to drive on.
From then on Amanda was a nervous wreak wanting to come clean to the cops and Peter but Kelli talked her out of it.
At Peter and Amanda’s wedding, all seemed to be going well until Ethan turned up and asked everyone to look under their seats, where they found photos of Amanda and Ethan in bed together. Peter ran off and Amanda ran after him but he didn’t want to know.
Now hitting rock bottom Amanda’s drinking seemed to be getting out of control and after crashing her car she was arrested and charged for drunk driving. Though she vowed to stop drinking she seemed unable to stop, alienating both Belle and Ryan. Kelli was on hand to help. Amanda soon found out about Kelli and Ethan being in cahoots after overhearing a telephone call. She drove off and Kelli soon followed. Ironically, Amanda flipped her car over and was trapped. Kelli looked on as the car started to burn. She walked away and the car exploded. Peter then found Amanda behind a tree. She had escaped the blast just in time.
Amanda confronted Kelli at the hospital but Kelli refused to repent and was led away. With Ethan testifying to all of Kelli’s tricks Amanda was reunited with Belle and Ryan but despite sleeping with her and saying he still loved her, Peter was unable to forget what had happened. He told Amanda that he couldn’t be with her for fear of getting hurt. Amanda decided it was time to make a fresh start and leave the bay. After a leaving party thrown by Belle, Amanda relocated to the City where she was seen in a hotel being offered a drink by a man. Refusing his offer Amanda took a seat at a table only to be surprised when Peter arrived saying he couldn’t leave without her and was going to move to the City to be with her.
She returned to the bay with Ryan after Dan’s death to pay her respects at his memorial service and support Leah but she wound up in a fight with Jazz.
Amanda returned to town again with Ryan in 2009 for Belle’s marriage to Aden. She was now pregnant with her third child and still happily married to Peter, who was busy on a case in the city. She presented the couple with a honeymoon in Broome as a wedding present and, after going to the Diner to renew old acquaintances such as Irene and Colleen, it was arranged they would all meet at Noah’s that night, before the wedding the next day. However, Nicole turned up saying Belle was unwell. When Amanda went back to the beach house with Irene, Geoff and Annie, she was confused that Belle wasn’t there. When Belle did turn up, Amanda went to check on her and Belle assured her she was fine. The following day, despite Aden being late, the wedding went ahead as planned.
Amanda learned the reason for the drama two weeks later when she and Ryan returned to town and she learned Belle had terminal cancer. Although Belle had chosen to enjoy the time she had left rather than endure treatment that would only delay things, Amanda insisted on calling an ambulance and taking her to hospital where she discussed treatment option with Belle’s specialist Dr O’Donnell. Belle went along with it for her sake but Aden was furious with Amanda for going against her wishes. After Rachel had helped Belle discharge herself, Amanda visited her at the beach house and apologised, saying she was just trying to be a good mother but had left it too late. Belle assured her she was a good mother and would be to the new baby. Amanda was last seen at Belle’s funeral, where she was among those accepting the balloons Belle had ordered.