Olivia Fraser-Richards
Olivia Kate Fraser-Richards (1998-1999; 2005; 2015-2018)
Emily Taylor, Alexandra Kotz, Connor Hamond, Zara Williams, Shaylee Pratt, Brielle Gardiner, Shaylee Pyett, Elise & Lauren Newman, Brianna & Tamara Wilkie, Bridget & Holly Durkin; Ivy Latimer (2005); Raechelle Banno (2015-2018)
Episodes: 2366–2677, 3992–4013; 6313–6935
Date of Birth: 20th April 1999 (retcon)
Parents: Lachlan Fraser & Chloe Richards (both deceased)
Legal Guardian: James Fraser
Occupation: Student, Waitress, Fashion Designer
Olivia nearly made a premature entry into the world as her mother went into labour whilst going for a walk. Even though they got home in time, she was diagnosed with a heart murmur at birth but quickly recovered to be reunited with parents Lachie and Chloe.
Her first couple of months of life were largely uneventful, with a first visit from grandmother Diana, and Chloe being thrown out of the Diner by Alf for breastfeeding in public. But then Lachie was diagnosed with a brain tumour and although an operation went well he suffered a cerebral haemorrhage that left him permanently brain damaged. His mother Diana sent him to the States for treatment and after Chloe briefly tried looking after him on her own they moved back in with Irene.
Lachie’s brother James, Olivia’s uncle, came to town to keep an eye on his family. Diana also began to involve herself in Olivia’s life, offering to get her on the list for a private school, and James was surprised when Chloe agreed. Chloe was uncomfortable when an old lady mistook James for Olivia’s father and felt Olivia needed her father in her life. James paid for them to go to the States to see him but when they arrived they discovered that, as a result of his brain damage, Lachie no longer had any feelings for either of them and was seeing someone else.
Soon after her return to Australia, Olivia showed signs of being unwell. Irene and Chloe seemed ready to dismiss it but James insisted on taking her to a specialist and learned she was suffering from a narrow aorta. She needed an operation but fortunately it went well. With Joey behaving erratically at the time, as a result of undiagnosed schizophrenia, Irene persuaded Chloe to take Olivia and move in with James, who she had recently started dating.
Chloe and James married but cracks soon started to appear in the relationship. James asked to adopt Olivia but Chloe suggested they try for a baby of their own instead, only she kept taking the pill. When James found out, he ended the marriage and Chloe and Olivia returned to live with Irene. Soon after, Lachie died in the States from a second haemorrhage and Diana became even more obsessed with controlling Olivia’s life. When a solicitor told her she had no more say in Olivia’s upbringing than Chloe allowed her, Diana kidnapped her granddaughter but her husband Peter quickly returned her to Chloe and checked Diana into a clinic. Chloe allowed Diana supervised access when she came out but had begun to feel she needed a new start. She took Olivia to live in the city after a hasty farewell to Irene and James.
Olivia returned to Summer Bay in 2005, by which time she had started using her mother’s maiden name Richards and also somehow aged to around ten years old. Chloe and Sally went to collect her from the city, after which Sally and Jesse took her to the Diner. She was on hand to give Chloe a hug after she was attacked by her violent boyfriend Troy. Olivia wished Alf a happy 60th birthday but that evening she was orphaned when Chloe was killed in a car accident. Colleen was looking after her for the evening when Irene and Barry returned to tell her the news. Irene declared her intention to apply for custody of Olivia and she and Barry took her away for a while. They returned to the news Jesse had turned himself in for causing the accident.
Despite Irene doing the bare minimum to inform her of Chloe’s death, Diana turned up at the funeral, where Olivia greeted her politely but without any real pleasure. Although neither Irene nor Olivia was happy with the idea, Diana was allowed to spend time with her granddaughter but Olivia was unimpressed with the posh doll she bought her. Hayley took Olivia down the beach but Diana joined them uninvited until Irene stepped in and took her away.
With Diana having applied for custody, Olivia was looked after by Kim and Hayley during the hearing and told them that because they were having a baby and loved each other they should get married. With the first day of mediation having gone badly, Olivia begged Irene not to let Diana take her. That night, Irene grabbed Olivia and drove off into the night, without any real idea of where they were going. Olivia left the teddy bear Chloe bought her at a petrol station and when Irene went back to get it, they ran into Barry, who persuaded them to return home. Olivia backed up Irene and Hayley’s story that they had gone to a sale in Yabbie Creek and had a flat tyre. The mediator questioned Olivia and she said that she loved Irene but also liked living in the city and, because she was questioned in front of Diana, didn’t feel able to say she didn’t want to live with her. As a result, the mediator awarded Diana custody and a distraught Olivia was dragged from the house.
After only a few hours of Diana’s cold and highly disciplined parenting, Olivia was ringing Irene begging for help. Irene and Hayley went to the house and spoke to Olivia through the gate but Diana turned them away. However, then James arrived as the executor of Chloe’s will, and summoned Diana and Olivia to the beach house.
He announced that not only had Chloe left everything to Olivia, to be placed in trust until her 16th birthday, but she had also stipulated that under no circumstances was Diana to be given custody of her – and had instead awarded guardianship to James. Olivia told Diana that she didn’t want to live with her because she always made trouble for everyone and was delighted when James told her they would be living in his flat in the city, so she could stay at the same school and still see all her friends. Once more, Irene said a sad farewell to Olivia as she waved them off, but was happy in the knowledge that Chloe’s wishes had been honoured.
In 2015, it was revealed that Olivia and James were now living in London when Irene went over to visit. A few months later, Olivia turned up in Summer Bay, now aged around seventeen and using both her parents’ surnames, having been expelled from her London school. She encountered VJ on the beach and convinced him to “borrow” a couple of bicycles to tour the town. She then went to Irene, revealing she had been suspended from school and claiming James had sent her to stay with Irene. In fact, she had stolen his credit card and bought herself a ticket but Irene agreed to her staying for a while. She tracked VJ down again, flirting with him heavily, and they took Leah’s car out for a drive, even though she didn’t have a license. The car was damaged while parked and Olivia had to work in the Diner to pay for the damage.
She went to meet VJ but found Hunter with him and insisted he stayed around, excluding VJ from the conversation and paying more attention to Hunter. When VJ objected, Olivia freaked out and insisted she’d never been interested in a relationship with him. She was then seen cutting her thighs. She started an argument with Charlotte when she saw her arguing with Irene and encouraged Hunter to reject her. Shortly after she was told to empty the bins at the Diner, the refuse was found scattered over Charlotte’s flat. She was questioned by the police but denied everything. However, it was revealed she had been expelled for vandalism: She told Irene a boy had been harassing her so she had painted “Pervert” on his door. She told Irene that James had no time for her and Irene agreed to her staying permanently.
She asked Hunter to avert her gaze after he found her in the water in a bikini but he peaked and saw the scars. VJ tried to talk to her about it, as did Irene, and she ran away but Hunter convinced her to go back to Irene. She admitted to her that a friend of James’ who stayed over used to come into her room and abuse her. However, Irene began acting strangely after she heard the story. Olivia wanted to forget about it and spend time with VJ and Hunter but Irene pressured her to see a counsellor. When Olivia accused her of not understanding, Irene replied that it had happened to her too. Olivia summoned Leah, and Irene admitted to them both that she had been raped by her uncle.
Olivia began seeing a counsellor but Irene continued to behave oddly, blowing up at Olivia and her friends. Olivia and Hunter cooked her breakfast as an apology. Hunter backed off from kissing her, worried about making her self-conscious about her scars, but she followed him home and kissed him, then opened up to him about her abuse and self-harm.. She seemed unaware of Irene’s alcoholism, being unconcerned when she saw her drinking. However, when Irene spoke to her nastily while drunk, she and Hunter alerted Alf. She told Hunter she loved him and wanted to sleep with him but found the experience uncomfortable, admitting she wasn’t over her abuse but didn’t want to ruin what they had. After attending Zac and Leah’s wedding reception, she told Irene about Charlotte killing Denny. She was shocked when Hunter announced he was leaving, saying Charlotte would reveal he was as bad as her. She tracked him down as he was getting in a car and told him he didn’t have to worry about Charlotte but he left anyway.
She made a disparaging remark about only idiots dating him when she learned Chris had just been through a break-up. She was annoyed that Hunter didn’t contact her as soon as he returned to town, despite his mother having been killed; when he eventually did come to see her, he told her he had stayed with the guy who gave him a lift. She tried to get him to open up to her about his feelings about Charlotte’s death and found him crying on the beach. She attended Charlotte’s funeral to support him after which Hunter confessed to her that he had burned down Leah’s house, which Billie was about to stand trial for, as well as robbing the Diner, which Charlotte had killed Denny to cover up. Olivia advised him to go along with Andy’s plan to blame the fire on Charlotte but instead he confessed. Olivia continued to support him and helped convince Irene to let him stay with them. However, she was resentful when Skye also moved in and continued to complain about her even while trying to get VJ to forgive Hunter. However, after Hunter told her she was being a jerk towards Skye, she befriended her. She was Skye’s confidante when she developed a crush on Oscar and the two girls worked together to lecture VJ and Hunter when they got into a fight in class.
Irene introduced her to Claire Lewis, a woman who may have been her daughter. When they were alone, Claire pressed Olivia for news on how she was conceived and Olivia told her about the rape but when Claire ran off Olivia was left worried that she’d messed up their reunion. However, she was concerned when Irene accepted Claire as her daughter without any evidence and searched through Claire’s bag, finding unpaid bills. Her concerns increased when Irene began paying for Claire’s flights to visit her. She asked Roo and Morag to look into Claire, but they found nothing untoward except a past drug addiction that Claire had already admitted to. However, Olivia refused to drop the matter and decided to order a home DNA kit. Hunter was disgusted at her interference and she promised to rip up the results, but instead looked at them and told Irene that Claire wasn’t her daughter. She then had to watch as both Irene and Claire were left devastated at the loss of their new family bond. She went to Hunter for reassurance but he refused to tell her she’d done the right thing. However, they were interrupted by the arrival of Lindsay Ford, the person who Hunter had really stayed with during his absence who revealed they’d kissed.
Olivia soon made up with both Irene and Hunter, after Hunter explained he had kissed Lindsay the first night then been just friends with her. However, Lindsay implied more had happened than that, and when Olivia saw her with her arm round Hunter she ended things. She was convinced to attend a beach party with VJ and Skye to cheer herself up only to learn it was Lindsay’s. One of Lindsay’s friends, Drew Parton, made a pass at her but she rejected him. She refused to forgive Hunter and nearly hit Lindsay when she goaded her in the Diner, with VJ and Skye having to cover for her. When she learned that Lindsay had set it up so Hunter would think she’d been with Drew, she went looking for him and saw him injured while trying to stop Lindsay joyriding Alf’s ute. She used the fact to force Linsdsay to leave town.
Afterwards, Olivia and Hunter went on a picnic to mark their reunion but Hunter collapsed, unable to breathe, as a result of not being properly checked over after the accident. She ran and got Zac and Greg for help, resulting in Zac giving him emergency treatment under Nate’s direction. She managed to get Irene to give her food from the Diner to re-do the picnic but ran off when Hunter tried to have sex with her on the beach afterwards, then bought a pregnancy test. Skye supported her when she took it and it turned out to be positive; Irene was quickly clued in but Olivia asked for them to give her a week to tell Hunter. Eventually, she called him over and told him the truth. When he walked away without saying anything, she told Irene and Skye she was considering a termination. Although Hunter quickly came back and said he’d stand by her, a chat about everything they’d have to give up quickly made her realise she should have the abortion anyway. Irene and Hunter escorted her to the clinic and, after chatting to a counsellor, she went through with the procedure. However, she was soon contemplating cutting herself again.
When she found out that Skye was seeing Tank, she denounced her as stupid, insisting Tank would never change and ignoring comparisons between him and Hunter. She blew up at Chris, calling him a pervert, when he spotted her new scars but agreed to go to the movies with Hunter and VJ instead of attending the hospital fundraiser, meaning they missed the explosion. Soon after, she realised Irene hadn’t gone to Fin’s as she claimed and looked for her with Hunter and John, finding her car abandoned. She was mollified when Leah received a text from Irene saying she had found her child and was with them. She was the one Skye tried to confide in when Tank told her he had caused the explosion. She also worried about Chris cutting himself off after Hannah’s death. She refused to stay the night with Hunter in his caravan, pointing out the need to wait six weeks after the abortion, but later admitted it was because she didn’t want him to notice she was cutting herself again. She admitted the counselling wasn’t work anymore but wanted Hunter to be her boyfriend rather than the guy that solved her problems. Instead, she confided in Chris, who arranged for her to attend group counselling and she was soon ready to sleep with Hunter again. She was more supportive than she had been in the past when Skye confided that she’d slept with Tank but bemused when Skye thanked her for being a friend until she found out Skye had run away and realised it was her way of saying goodbye.
When she and Hunter spent time with VJ and Billie, Olivia deliberately excluded Billie from the conversation by talking about things she didn’t know about and then called her stupid for getting pregnant by someone younger. Both VJ and Hunter told her to apologise and she admited she was afraid of the gang splitting up with Skye gone and VJ focused on Billie, but ended up spending time with the couple. She received an odd phone call from Irene’s phone consisting of sounds of a struggle, then a text message in which Irene called her “Oli”. She was unable to interest Chris, and Hunter was preoccupied with the news Andy had confessed to killing Charlotte, so she went to the police on her own and was given short shrift. Not long after however, she received videos and photos showing Irene being held prisoner. She was then confronted by the kidnapper, Mick Jennings, who told her that if she didn’t come with him she’d never see Irene again. Instead, she ran off after planting her phone in his car, allowing the police to locate the shack where Irene had been held. She and Chris found Irene wandering in the bush nearby and Olivia tried to support her when it was revealed that Mick was her son. She tried to get Hunter to talk to her after it came out that Josh killed Charlotte but he just snapped at her.
She again got short shrift from Hunter when he refused to discuss Josh and Andy’s escape with her, sending her away when she tried to stay the night. She and Hunter went round VJ’s where she befriended Jordan Walsh only for a drunk Hunter to accuse Jordan of cracking onto her and get into a fight with him. The next day, Hunter tried to stop her talking to Jordan. She arranged a special afternoon with Hunter to try and get things back on track only for Hunter to get annoyed when she let slip that Jordan had advised her to break up with him…resulting in Olivia breaking up with him. She met up with Tabitha Ford, a friend from her group counselling who had just moved to town, and went with her and Jordan to the fundraising sleepover Evelyn was organising at the school. There she again clashed with Hunter, before brushing aside his attempts to talk to her. She softened towards him when they had a study session together but Tabitha told her that Hunter had called her scars disgusting and her self-harming attention seeking. Even though Hunter insisted it was a lie, Olivia bunked off school to spend time with Tabitha, missing a Geography exam in the process, and refused to speak to Hunter even with Irene pleading his case. Hunter eventually convinced her Tabitha had lied but Olivia quickly forgave her while refusing to reunite with Hunter.
She relied on Tabitha to calm her before an exam and when she realised she’d missed a chunk of it. However, when a plane carrying Irene and several other residents crashed, it was Hunter she turned to for support, ignoring a call from Tabitha. After being reunited with Irene, she apologised to Tabitha who told her she had to go back into hospital to donate more stem cells to her sister Jules. Olivia spent a girlie night with her beforehand but was confused when Chris saw her on the beach the next morning, she found a photo of herself in Tabitha’s locker and there was no record of her at the hospital. Tabitha told her she was at Reefton Lakes and her admission had been delayed. When Hunter was accused of tampering with his exam results on the school computer, he insisted to Olivia that Tabitha had framed him. While she and Tabitha were trying on outfits for non-uniform day, Olivia found a video on Tabitha’s phone of Zac typing in his password. She told Zac but Tabitha deleted the video before he could see it. Tabitha turned up to the non-uniform day dressed as Olivia and Olivia pretended to be friends with her again, then recorded her admitting that she had altered both Hunter’s results and Olivia’s (to make them better). Hunter was cleared and he and Olivia admitted they still loved each other and kissed. However, Tabitha announced that Hunter had kissed her. Although Olivia realised it was actually the other way round, she felt it was just another example of how messed up their relationship was and decided not to have anything to do with either Hunter or Tabitha.
When Tabitha started posting nasty comments about her online, Olivia ignored VJ and Hunter’s advice and responded, resulting in the school turning on her, especially when Tabitha posted an out of context video of her trying on clothes that made her look stuck-up. She deleted her account but found that Tabitha had set up a fake account in her name and was making it look as though Olivia was slating her online. Olivia was given a hard time by her classmates but when Zac told them the truth the ringleader, Shay Gilbert, apologised to her. When Chris left town, she worked with Hunter to put together a book of his recipes, after which Hunter asked her out and she accepted. However, while she was getting ready she began receiving messages from someone who at first claimed to be a fellow victim of Kirk Shepherd’s abuse, saying he had been arrested and Olivia needed to give a statement to provide more evidence. When Olivia was reluctant, the person, who could see and hear her, claimed to be Kirk and that they had a video of her abuse that would be posted online if she told anyone, left the room or disobeyed instructions. She sent Hunter away but was refusing an instruction to undress when Hunter messaged to say it was Tabitha posing as Kirk. Despite this, she freaked out when Hunter touched her. She realised she needed to make a statement against Kirk to move on and did so with support from Irene, Hunter and Kat. When she saw Tabitha at the school, prior to being sent away to boarding school, she laid into her and branded her a psycho. However, she and Hunter ended up joining Olivia and Juliette, who had no idea about their falling out, for a farewell lunch and they parted on good terms. Afterwards, she felt liberated to realise she didn’t hate Tabitha anymore and got back with Hunter.
She began planning to get into a fashion course and interrogated Hunter about his own plans, prompting him to announce he wanted to be a sports physio. She also asked Irene to be a guardian as thanks for her recent support and began boasting about Hunter’s plans to a bemused Irene and Zac. Hunter suggested they take a gap year together but Irene refused to give her access to her trust fund. After being questioned by Irene and Hunter, she admitted she’d rather take a short trip over the summer and be back for the start of uni. She was shocked when classmate Rebekah Pops mentioned that Hunter had agreed to buy a stolen exam paper off her and informed Irene and Roo, who reported it.
When Hunter missed an exam after oversleeping, he asked Olivia to back up his story that he was sick. Olivia initially agreed but backed out when it was clear Zac wouldn’t believe her. She was furious when Hunter admitted he didn’t really want to be a sports physio, just go to uni with her, meaning he had tried to get her to lie for something he wasn’t actually interested in. She soon forgave him however when she received flowers and a voucher for French lessons, unaware that VJ had bought them on Hunter’s behalf. She told Hunter she might be pregnant but it turned out to be a false alarm; however, Hunter was angry that he’d messed up his maths exams worrying about it and Irene warned her they were having too many dramas. When they had another argument after Hunter failed his bronze medallion, they broke up.
She hailed Hunter as a hero when he got John to hospital after he collapsed but backed off when Hunter indicated he wanted to be more than friends and agreed to go for a walk with Mason instead. However, when Mason tried to ask her out she told him she wasn’t ready, only to ask him to lunch at Roo’s suggestion. Things seemed to be going well until Hunter turned up and insulted her, prompting her to angrily tell him she was trying to get over him. She finished the date, assuring Mason she was having a good time, but after Hunter told her he wouldn’t stand in her way she told Mason she wasn’t ready for a relationship.
Despite this, she went to check on Mason when his friend Decker was killed and later called round with lunch where they nearly kissed. She assured Hunter she wasn’t seeing Mason but was furious when he checked her phone. She offered Hunter his ticket to the formal, since they weren’t going together anymore, but he refused it and told her about the Morgans being in witness protection. Olivia rushed round to talk to Mason about it, then invited him to the formal with her. However, when Hunter turned up she ended up dancing with him, then walked out when Evelyn told her Hunter still liked her, resulting in an argument with Mason. She found out he and Hunter had fought and initially blamed Hunter until she found out Mason had thrown the first punch. She and Mason decided they weren’t in the right headplace for a relationship but when she got good exam results she received text enquiries from both Hunter and Mason. She went to the music festival, where she chatted to Hunter about their results but later kissed Mason before going off with him.
She and Mason went skinny dipping only to return to find everyone had been worried about them after a bush fire had broken out near the festival. She went to see Hunter in hospital after learning he had been injured looking for her, prompting Mason to ask if she still had feelings for him. She kept Mason company during a lifeguard shift on the beach and assured him she was committed to him. She then had sex with him at the garage only to be caught by Irene, Matt and Brody. Irene worried she was getting too serious too quickly. Despite this, she invited Mason as her date to Luc’s naming ceremony, where she read out a speech that Irene had sent. After Billie’s death, she decided to reopen the Diner with Matt, Evelyn and Hunter in order to help Irene and Leah, after which she and Hunter shared a moment. She kept the fact Hunter had been there from Mason, but Hunter told her they couldn’t be friends. When Mason bought her some stationery for uni and invited her on a road trip with him, her reaction was lukewarm. They broke up after she admitted she still had feelings for Hunter.
Hunter helped her prepare for her first day at uni by arranging for Evelyn to give her a guided tour and they reunited, with her telling him it was never going to be anyone but him. She invited Hunter to go to O-week with her, where Mason had to stop him getting into a fight. She apologised to Mason for messing him about and tried to set him up with classmate Lena Ascot. She had trouble spending time with Hunter, finding her time taken up by her new uni friends. She suggested they schedule time together but Hunter suggested they instead get their own place. They managed to get Leah and Irene to agree but were rejected by the first four properties they applied to. They were finally accepted to a private rental they hadn’t viewed but it was a mess. They admitted they both hated it but decided to stick it out. However, after cleaning up and getting supplies, they were burgled, with Olivia’s laptop stolen. They ended up moving back in with Irene, where she insisted to Hunter that they help out around the house.
Olivia supported Irene’s desire to spend time with Luc, suggesting she apply for custody as well when Ash challenged VJ. With her 18th birthday approaching, she told Hunter she didn’t want to celebrate. He instead took her out for dinner the night before her birthday and the bartender served her an alcoholic drink just after midnight but Olivia ended up in tears, saying she regretted not having her parents around to celebrate with her. Hunter convinced her to have a birthday lunch with those close to her in Summer Bay. She decided not to invite Leah and VJ because of the tension with Irene, but Hunter invited VJ anyway and he kept it together in front of Olivia. Afterwards, Olivia, Hunter and VJ went to Salt with some of her uni friends. She and Hunter took VJ out for a pizza to try and cheer him up over losing Luc but VJ tried to kiss her. When she told Hunter, he confronted VJ and they ended up in a fight.
VJ confided in her about how he was getting used to seeing Luc with Ash and Kat and she suggested he pack away Billie’s things but when they tried it he realised he wasn’t ready. She allowed Kat and Luc to stay the night at the beach house in secret when they had problems with Patrick Stanwood. Hunter confided in her that Zac might not be his father and she unsuccessfully tried to talk him out of doing a DNA test in secret. She quickly realised Hunter was lying about the DNA results being positive but agreed to keep it from Zac when she saw what a hard time he was having over his break-up with Leah. However, when Hunter considered going to Robertson with Zac to keep him happy, she convinced him to tell the truth. After Zac left, Olivia worried Hunter was bottling things up and dragged him and VJ out into the bush, where she tried to get them to shout out their feelings. Both refused and Hunter ended up driving the car Zac had left him recklessly and Leah had to drive them home after he got a puncture.
When Irene returned from a trip to the city and started making secretive phone calls, Olivia suspected she had a secret boyfriend but in fact she revealed she was being harassed by Mick, who wanted access to Luc. Olivia encouraged Irene to tell Ash, Leah and VJ and informed her Mick had hired a lawyer, while also supporting VJ when he felt guilty over not realising Luc was ill. Hunter told her he was going to look for his real father.
She convinced Hunter to track down his grandmother Peggy but this backfired when it turned out she still resented Hunter over his role in Charlotte’s death and knew about the Diner robbery. On realising she could be charged as an accessory for keeping quiet, Olivia tried to convince Peggy that Hunter had changed but this only enraged Peggy further and prompted her to report them both. Hunter blamed her for their predicament and, although they escaped charges, she worried about the ease with which they’d turned on each other. However, VJ helped them make up and she and VJ then smoothed things over between Hunter and Peggy. Peggy suggested Hunter’s father was their old neighbour Wally Burns and Olivia helped Hunter track him down and get a DNA test done despite him claiming to be infertile. She befriended Ziggy, who helped her get her keys out of her car when she locked them in. When Wally did turn out to be Hunter’s father after all, Olivia tried to help them bond. She also visited Mason when he was recovering from a car accident and helped him track down Beth Ellis.
After ending his attempt to get to know Wally, Hunter told Olivia he had set up a website to help her sell her designs. Ziggy helped her take photographs of the items but she worried about the lack of immediate sales. When her first customer turned out to be Marilyn, she worried it was a pity buy but Marilyn assured her she did actually want the outfit and she soon had more orders. However, she was still worried that things weren’t going fast enough so organised a launch party at Salt. The event was a disaster however: The attendees were only there for free drinks and heckled her during her speech, her attempt to control who was served alcohol failed resulting in underage Raffy getting drunk, and the event got so far out of hand the police were called. She lost the bond Irene had put up because of the damage and the incident hit the Coastal News, but ironically the publicity saw her get a lot more orders.
She then found herself snowed under and got Hunter, VJ, Raffy and Coco to help out with cutting material for the dresses, also advising VJ to shut down Coco’s crush on him. However, just when everything seemed done, she realised they hadn’t followed the proper patterns and had wasted all the material, blasting Raffy as a convenient target. Although she apologised and promised to make her a dress, she refused Irene and Hunter’s advice to slow down and asked for access to her trust fund to fund proper manufacturing. Irene offered to match a business loan but told her to do a business plan first. Instead, she forged a cheque for $5000 from the fund and used the money to pay her classmates to make the dresses but Irene found out. Olivia explained the business was important to her because Chloe taught her to make dresses so Irene decided to invest $20,000 of her own money.
She decided to sponsor the sausage sizzle surf club fundraiser in order to raise interest in her business and got Hunter to help her set up a stall there until Irene admonished her for keeping him away from his studies and she went home to help him. When she discovered Ziggy had ran away to the city, she roped Brody into helping look for her but was unable to convince her to come home. She eventually brought her back to the Bay after Brody saved her from being assaulted but wasn’t present when Ben arrived and turned up to see him punch Brody after misreading the situation. She reported both Ziggy’s attacker Curtis and Ben to the police. Ziggy admitted she had caused Maggie to be injured years previous so Olivia helped her buy an olive tree as an apology and was horrified to find Mick in the house. She rushed to tell Irene only to learn that she had brought him there and put him up in a motel.
She was confused when sales of one of her designs dropped off until Marilyn tipped her off to the fact that a copy of it was being sold on the Find, one of the top online retailers. She lodged a complaint and met the company’s representative Axel Boyd, who told her the person responsible had been sacked and offered to sell her design officially. Hunter pointed out she would only get a fifth of the profit she got selling it herself but she accepted Axel’s offer to fly her out to Melbourne. On her return, she admitted she had signed the contract but brushed aside Hunter’s concerns and continued showing Axel designs. She largely ignored Hunter as he made plans to celebrate the end of exams, instead spending the evening in a meeting with Axel who suggested Hunter would hold her back. The next day, she went out to lunch with Hunter but failed to twig that he was trying to propose to her. She then had to say goodbye to VJ when he left town with Luc to get her away from Mick.
Axel arranged an interview and photoshoot for her at Salt, after which they shared a drink and he invited her to his hotel room and kissed her. Although Olivia turned him down, she was happy to let him organise a showcase for her and left out the kiss when telling Hunter about the incident. She invited Hunter to the showcase but he proceeded to show her up by getting drunk and being rude while Axel came to her rescue. However, she was delighted when Hunter told her a rep from Trend had been in touch wanting to meet her. The meeting went well but Axel told her that the Find were dropping her for breaching an exclusivity clause and would sue her if she went to anyone else. She then realised Hunter had set the meeting up and accused him of taking her dream away from her. She went to Axel’s motel room to ask him for help and, believing her career was over and angry with Hunter, she ended up getting drunk and sleeping with him. She was thrown when he then offered to help her get the contract back.
Axel returned and revealed he had set up a meeting and Olivia would get her contract back if she could present a new line. Olivia was uncomfortable working with him and Irene returned home in time to hear her saying they slept together. Despite this, she decided to carry on working with him and keep things professional. Axel helped her through her meeting with Find head honcho Marli Lewis but she felt uncomfortable after hugging him in celebration and confessed to Ziggy, who threatened to tell Hunter. Olivia responded by ending their friendship, saying it was no longer her business. Axel invited her to go to Paris with him for Fashion Week but she turned him down even when he tried to pressure her through Hunter. Knowing Hunter was going to propose, she planned to accept despite Irene and Ziggy telling her to be honest, but when she got there she ran away in front of most of the town. Although Irene tried to get her to tell the truth, she instead broke up with Hunter, telling him he wasn’t right for her anymore, and went to Axel’s motel room.
After spending the night on Axel’s couch, Olivia was confronted by Irene who demanded she speak to Hunter. Olivia was planning to go to Paris with Axel and move to Melbourne with him. She told Hunter they’d drifted apart and said goodbye to Irene, then moved to the city with Axel, moving in with him as his girlfriend. She soon became disenchanted though when she prepared a romantic meal only for Axel to bring some clients home to charm. On receiving Hunter’s proposal video, she raced back to Summer Bay to accept only for him to reveal he knew she’d cheated and wanted nothing to do with her.
Leah tried to order her out of the Diner when Hunter was there but Hunter stepped in and said they should be civil. However, she was disappointed when he then began spending time with Jennifer Dutton. She received a message from Axel reminding her she needed to do designs for the Find’s winter collection but was unable to concentrate. She tried to talk to Hunter about it but found him on a date with Jennifer. She accused him of using her as a rebound then learned they had spent the night together. When her designs were rejected, she left the Find. At O Week, she spent time with Hunter and Mason, only for Hunter to invite Jennifer to join them and tell her they couldn’t be friends. She did however support Mason when he re-enrolled at college.
She was buoyed somewhat when Hunter made up with her. She also made up with Ziggy. After Hunter had broken up with Jennifer, Olivia found Jennifer preparing to sleep rough and took her back to Leah and Hunter. She and Hunter later spent Ziggy’s birthday party together, falling asleep talking. Next day, she told Hunter she wanted to get back together but he felt they’d changed too much. She and Hunter later searched for a missing Ava together and found her backpack.
With Hunter’s help, she got her website up again but told him he was confusing things by acting like they were friends. She went out on a girls’ cocktail night with Leah, Marilyn, Roo and Jasmine and drunkenly ranted at Hunter when he tried to talk to her. She invited Jasmine to move in without clearing it with Irene and arrived too late to clue her in before Jasmine arrived with her bags. However, Irene was so fine with the idea that Olivia quickly began to feel left out. Jasmine overheard her complaining about her to Ziggy, after which Olivia apologised to her and Irene.
Along with Hunter and Jasmine, she stumbled upon Ebony’s staged accident and was perturbed to see how friendly Hunter and Ebony were. She distracted herself by encouraging Jasmine to pursue a relationship with Colby, sending him a fake message from Jasmine’s phone inviting him to come over. She tried to warn Ebony off Colby which merely resulted in Colby breaking up with Jasmine.When Hunter was injured during a scuffle with some smugglers on the wharf, Olivia rushed to hospital to nurse him until Mason told her Hunter didn’t want her visiting him. She apologised when he was discharged but he felt they couldn’t be friends.
Jasmine encouraged her to try online dating but she struggled to find a match so Marilyn convinced her to attend a singles night at Salt. However, she was put out when the questionnaire deemed her and Hunter, who was also attending, incompatible, and she was instead paired with Raj, who worked in a clothes shop and argued with her about designer labels. She quickly accepted an offer to design and make Ziggy’s wedding dress, then learned she had two weeks to do it. She attended Ash’s farewell and Ziggy’s hen party, which ended up meeting up with the stags at Salt. After briefly reminiscing, she had sex with Hunter in the surf club office. They both felt awkward afterwards but felt they’d had closure.
She was surprised when, on the basis of someone seeing photos of Ziggy’s wedding dress, she was hired to design another one and coped with the client constantly changing her ideas, roping in Jasmine as a model. She dissuaded Mason from asking Jasmine out, knowing she only saw him as a friend. She was approached by a wedding dress firm in Melbourne but felt she’d messed up the interview when they asked her about her time with the Find. However, she was offered the job and, after chatting with Irene, decided to take it. She left after a farewell party at Salt.