Matilda Hunter

Matilda Harriet Jane Hunter (often referred to as "Mattie") is a fictional character in the Australian soap opera Home and Away. She has been portrayed by actress Indiana Evans since January 2004.

Character
Matilda, and her twin brother Henry were brought to the bay in early 2004 as their mother took them out of boarding school to save money after she and Rhys had bought the caravan park. Matilda initially spoke French, was inconsiderate towards the Sutherland's who had just got stuck down a mineshaft and was constantly having a go at Max, along with her brother Henry.

Despite her initial protestations, Matilda had to come to terms that she was going to be staying where she was and that things weren't going to change. When she was electrocuted by Robbie's mosquito catcher, she spent a few days in hospital and upon her release, along with Henry, tried to scam people out of their money by pretending that she could tell the future.

She also fell for Kim, who was about six years older than him and whilst trying to impress him at the beach she got caught in a rip. Kim, initially thought that she was just showing off and left her to drown, until the seriousness of the situation was realised and she was eventually saved and had to spend another few days in hospital. Kim told her that he had no feelings for leaving Matilda heartbroken.

Max had began to fall for Matilda, and together with Henry they did their best to keep Rhys and Beth together as their marraigfe began to fall apart. Unfortunately for them and Michael Berkley, they were unsuccessful, and Rhys left the bay and Matilda was left in a suddenly very empty Summer Bay House with just her two brothers and her mum and they decided to sell.

Matilda pestered Barry Hyde to run self-defence classes at the school as a result of recent dramas in the bay and Barry eventually relented. When her sister Kit returned to the bay, Matilda overheard Kim talking to Robbie about liking one of his sister. Matilda began to think that Kim was finally falling for her and was left heartbroken when it was revealed that it was actually Kit that he wanted. Nevertheless, Matilda got to put her self defence classes to good use with an astonishingly bad stunt in the surf club.

In 2005 during the bush fires Matilda and Henry went out bush-walking, where they came across the charred remains of a body, which later turned out to be those of Zoe McAllister's (that's the real one and not the fake one). This gave Matilda a real jolt and helped her mature a lot.

She also became very friendly with Henry's arch-nemesis Ric Dalby and wanted their friendship to go further, but he turned down her advances and eventually ended up going out with Cassie, a newcomer to the bay who Matilda had come to the bay with.

Soon after another new kid came to Summer Bay High named Diesel and Matilda fell for him too. He too spurned her advances, much more interested in Sally Fletcher. Matilda began to feel like no boys wanted her and went on a rebellious phase, sneaking off and drinking at rock concerts and going to wild parties. She was hit by Robbie's car on one of these occasions and a spent a week in hospital. She then sneaked out and went off to another party where she again lost control of herself and was picked up by stranger and put in a shed. She escaped eventually, shaken and her behaviour began to return to normal.

A month or two later, the new Holden family moved in next door and conveniently the youngest son Lucas was the same age as Matilda. They ended up playing the lead roles in Colleen's pantomine and whilst rehearsing for this they fell for each other. However whenever they went to kiss one another, fate always got in their way and they shared their first kiss in front of the bay on stage.

Matilda and Lucas then enjoyed a relatively steady relationship, even taking into account they both nearly blinded Amanda with a paint bomb. Matilda then had to cope with the death of grandfather. With Project 56 going ahead, Beth and Tony decided that instead of two houses they would be better off living in just the one and soon Matilda was living with her boyfriend Lucas.

However Lucas didn't take well to living with women again after years living solely with his father and brother and went off the rails to such an extent that he and Matilda broke up. It didn't help that Matilda thought that Lucas was seeing Lee Morton behind her back.

Matilda was picked as one of Martha's bridesmaids, though questions must be asked why. However when Eve blew the reception up, Matilda was one of the worst injured ending up with hideous burns to her neck which she reacted badly to.

She began pigging out on cakes from the diner, before being sick in secret and friends Lucas and Cassie began to suspect that somethign was wrong. It took Matilda to collapse and be taken to hospital for Cassie to tell Beth what was wrong. Rachel suggested that Matilda go to a retreat for people that had the same self image problems that Matilda was suffering from, and Matilda agreed to go.

There she became friends with a guy named Dean who she, over time, started a relationship. Lucas began to suspect that something was up with Dean and his suspicions came true when he spotted Dean hugging Gareth at a secluded spot, again leaving Matilda devastated.

Matilda's next relationship was with Ric, who she started going out with much against Beth's wishes feeling that Ric was too old for Matilda. This lead to Matilda lying, so that she was able to spend a night with Ric on the Blaxland. Unfortunately Matilda, Colleen had seen Matilda leaving in the morning and the news soon filtered back to Beth, who was on the warpath.

Family Tree

 * Graham Walters (grandfather, deceased) married to Amanda Walters (step-grandmother)
 * Elizabeth Walters (mother, deceased), married to Jack Hunter (father, deceased) and Rhys Sutherland (divorced)
 * Scott Hunter (brother), married to Hayley Lawson(sister-in-law)
 * Noah Lawson II (nephew)
 * Kit Hunter (sister),married to Kim Hyde(brother-in-law)
 * Archie Hunter (nephew)
 * Robert Hunter (brother), married to Tasha Hunter (sister-in-law)
 * Ella Hunter (niece)
 * Matilda Hunter in a relationship with Ric Dalby
 * Henry Hunter (twin brother)

Marital status
Current status: Dating with Ric Dalby.

Previous relations: dated Ric Dalby (twice), dated Lucas Holden,dated Dean, kissed Reuben.