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Character Profiles > Janae Timmins Eliza Taylor-Cotter

Janae Janelle Timmins (née Timmins, prev. Hoyland) 2005-2008
Lived: 26, 30, 32 Ramsay Street, West Waratah Caravan Park
Born: 1989
Parents: Kim and Janelle Timmins
Siblings: Dwayne, Brandon, Dylan, Scott [Stingray] and Anne; Bree (adoptive)
Marital Status: Boyd Hoyland (2006-2007; dissolved)
Family Tree: Timmins
Occupation: Student, Cleaner at at Erinsborough & District Hospital, Carpenter's Mechanics Employee/Owner

Man-eating Janae Timmins grew up in Colac with a family which consisted of four older brothers, who were always in and out of trouble, and a father who was rarely around. She soon found other male role models with a string of boyfriends and realised that using her sexuality was the best way to get ahead in life. When her father took off once again, Janae’s mother, Janelle, managed to find herself a job in Erinsborough, where two of the Timmins brothers, Scott, aka Stingray, and Dylan, had been living. With the family set to settle down in suburbia, Janelle summoned her two daughters, but Janae quickly caused problems when she got herself and her little sister, Bree, thrown off the bus. Janae’s first reaction was to act seductively in order to score a lift, but when this failed, Bree managed to convince some passers-by that they needed to get to Erinsborough where their siamese twin brothers were having an urgent operation.

Only hours after arriving in town, Janae was causing trouble when she managed to shoplift a Timmins family dinner from under Harold Bishop’s nose in the General Store, along with Bree. He eventually caught on, and Janelle forced her daughters to apologise, so Janae turned her attention to another of her favourite pastimes – boys. An early interest in Boyd Hoyland disappeared when she realised that he was taken, so she looked elsewhere. When she met Mike Pill, one of the most popular guys in school, she decided that she had to have him and this time, his having a girlfriend made no difference. Janae managed to steal Mike away from Shazza Cox, but it quickly became clear that she was out of her depth. Mike treated Janae like an object, even allowing his mates to try it on with her. Although the Timminses’ landlady, Lyn Scully, and Janae’s teacher, Susan Smith, were concerned, Janelle could see no wrong in her daughter’s behaviour.

However, one night at an all-ages rage, Mike pushed Janae too far when he suggested that she kissed his friend, Jimmo, in order to make Jimmo’s girlfriend jealous. Janae poured her drink over Mike and stormed off, bumping into Chris Cousens on the way. Chris, a photographer, tried to convince Janae that she could be a model. He managed to spike her drink and, before long, she was barely able to stand. As Chris went off to get their coats, a panicky Janae phoned home and managed to get in touch with her brother Stingray. Stingray, Dylan and Bree headed down to the rage, where they struggled to find Janae in the crowds, but eventually spotted Chris attempting to get her out the door. They stopped him just in time, with Bree sending her knee into Chris’ groin and Dylan then taking him outside to teach him a lesson about messing with the Timmins siblings. They then took Janae to the hospital where she insisted she was fine and was allowed home, but made her brothers and sister promise not to say anything to anyone else. Although a worried Stingray wanted her to contact the police, he agreed to go along with her wishes, but it looked like Janae had learnt nothing when, the next day, she went out to see Mike once again.

Janae and Mike quickly picked up where they left off, but Dylan’s attempts to protect his little sister saw Mike dump her. However, she managed to convince him to give her another try and, worried that she might lose him again, Janae had unprotected sex with Mike in his car. His true colours quickly shone through when he refused to take Janae to the pharmacy to get the emergency pill and she was forced to walk there on her own. Later, she tracked down his car outside Lassiter’s and pulled off the windscreen wipers, before returning them to him in the General Store and announcing that he was dumped.

When Boyd split up with girlfriend Sky Mangel, Janae’s interest in him returned, but it was obvious that it would be a while before he had moved on and was ready to go out with someone else. As Janae began to feel more and more neglected at home and rejected by Boyd, she began having counselling at the school with Karl Kennedy. As Janae became more reliant on Karl as someone to talk to, she was upset when she spotted him chatting to Stingray one day and felt that she’d been betrayed once again. When she overheard Janelle telling Stingray that he was the only one of her kids who was worth anything and after an embarrassing incident where she kissed Boyd and he pushed her away again, Janae decided to leave. With little interest from Janelle, Janae headed out the door but Stingray warned his mother how low Janae was and that she’d overheard their conversation. Janelle raced out and caught up with Janae who was hitch-hiking, offering to take her to a truck stop where she’d have more luck finding a ride. When they arrived, Janelle told Janae that she wanted her to return home, making it clear how important her daughter was to her. For a few hours, mother and daughter actually seemed to be getting through to each other, but it wasn’t long before they were back at each other’s throats. However, during a road trip to Canberra, where Bree was taking part in a national spelling contest, Janelle learnt about Janae’s encounter with Chris Cousens. She was hurt that Janae hadn’t confided in her at the time and they managed to come to a new understanding.

Back in Ramsay Street, Janae put her efforts back into winning over Boyd. The pair had been attending aikido lessons together and were growing closer, with Janae insisting that she just wanted to be friends. However, as time went on and Boyd still showed little interest in her, Janae decided to grab the bull by the horns and make her feelings clear. However, her timing was poor, as Boyd was preoccupied with a girl named Kayla Thomas, whose baby his parents were adopting, and Janae was devastated when she was rejected once more.

Following more rejection, Janae started to rely more and more on her counselling sessions with Karl, as she appreciated having someone around who listened to her and treated her like an adult. As the family attempted to make money and pay off Janelle’s credit card debts, Janae was horrified when they entered a clip of her singing into a hairbrush, and falling over, to the show, Stupid Aussies. However, the tables were quickly turned when Janae ended up winning the top prize of $5000 and decided that she was going to keep it. Her plans for the money were revealed when she visited Karl and asked for a reference so that she could have a breast enlargement. Karl’s initial attempts to talk her out of it went wrong as a video of the surgery had no effect on her, but when Karl then brought in old friend, and plastic surgeon, Trevor Canning to speak to her, she realised that her plan would never come to fruition.

As Janae spent more and more time with Karl, many locals began to notice the unusual relationship. Even Karl realised that her dependence was becoming too much after they spent the evening at the theatre together, with Janae claiming that she was studying the play at school. A concerned Boyd pointed out to Karl that Janae was lying, but Janae was still furious when Karl suggested that they cut back on the sessions. Janae reluctantly agreed, but she still found herself at the surgery on several occasions, looking for advice and guidance. When Janae broke down one day and admitted that she wished Karl was her father, he suggested that she get in contact with her dad and try to build up that relationship. Meanwhile, he also recommended that she find a new focus in life, so she decided to join the school basketball team and quickly became vice captain. Janae excitedly invited Karl to her first big game, and was devastated when he didn’t show up and she ended up missing a vital goal and running off in tears. As she left, Karl arrived and tried to apologise, but Janae continued running, with the entire exchange witnessed by Janelle. Back at home, Janelle started asking Janae what exactly had been going on between her and Karl, and Janae’s vague answers left Janelle with the impression that an improper relationship had been going on for weeks. As Janae ran away from home, Janelle read her daughter’s diary, which only made matters worse, with mentions of Karl making her feel like a woman. After confronting a shocked Karl, Janelle set off to Colac to find her daughter.

Although Janelle had no luck, Janae’s trip proved worthwhile as she chatted to several old acquaintances of the Timmins family. She found out that Kim wasn’t quite the womaniser that the kids had been led to believe and that his rich parents had threatened to cut off his inheritance if he married Janelle. After phoning home, Stingray and Dylan went to pick her up and dragged her back to Erinsborough, just in time to clear Karl’s name. But Janae wasn’t satisfied with the information she’d received and decided that she wanted to go and stay with her dad. However, as Janae managed to get Kim’s mobile number from his mum, Janelle got in there first, warning Kim that if he let Janae stay with him, she’d tell their kids about his dirty little secret. Kim did as he was told and Janae was left devastated by her father’s rejection.

As time went on, Janae was also becoming a lot closer to Boyd. However, some poor motherly advice from Janelle left Boyd wondering why Janae was constantly giving him the cold shoulder. When they did finally arrange a date, Janelle encouraged her daughter not to make things too easy, and ended up tagging along herself. But when Dylan was involved in a plane crash, along with many other residents who were on the joy flight to Tasmania, celebrating Lassiter’s 20th Anniversary, Janae desperately needed someone to turn to. With Janelle falling apart, Janae went to Boyd and they finally got their act together and started dating. However, as that area of her life fell into place, Janae was shocked to see her dad in Ramsay Street, as he’d heard about what had happened. Although the truth finally came out – that Kim had turned down an offer from his parents for a job and a family home and then shot through and Janelle had been blackmailing him with that information – Janae still wasn’t happy to have him around. However, after a little pressure was applied by Bree, Janae agreed to help with a plan to get Kim to stick around and before long, he and Janelle were back together.

Janae’s relationship with Boyd continued to flourish as they went away on a road trip together, but she was horrified to find her ex, Mike, had coupled up with another of her enemies, Karen Chambers from Colac High. However, Janae showed how much she’d matured as she ignored Karen’s goading and told her that Mike was one of her ex-boyfriends, before walking away. Back in Erinsborough, Janae even managed to conceal her jealousy, as Boyd and Sky happily shared their VCE results, and gave him a Christmas gift of a four-leafed clover to wish him luck with his burgeoning medical career. However, Janae’s happiness was about to come crashing down around her. After scoring some summer work at Karl’s surgery, Boyd started asking Janae awkward questions about her sexual relationship with Mike. Suspecting that Boyd had seen something in her medical files, Janae stole his work key and let herself into the surgery. After reading her own file and finding nothing unusual, she checked Mike’s and was shocked to learn that he was HIV positive. Having lied to Boyd that she and Mike had only kissed, she then ended the relationship, claiming that she still loved Mike and couldn’t go on living a lie. Janae confided in Bree, who in turn told Kim, and they offered to stand by her and keep her secret as she went for tests. Boyd quickly realised that something was amiss and caught her entering the surgery. She finally admitted to having unprotected sex with Mike and told Boyd that he would probably have to be tested too. As Janae waited for the results, Boyd told her that he didn’t care what the results were – he was prepared to stand by her.

Fortunately for Janae, the tests came back negative and she set about moving no with her life. However, her idea of moving on involved taking a vow of celibacy, promising herself that her relationship with Boyd wouldn’t just be about sex. But sex was the last thing on her mind when Boyd started uni and she was overwhelmed by feelings of jealousy. After following Boyd to uni, she spotted him chatting to another student, Georgia Coutts, and, once Boyd had gone, Janae quickly warned Georgia, and all of her friends, to stay away from him. Dylan, who was at the uni with his hot dog cart, quickly worked out what his younger sister was up to, and proceeded to blackmail her. However, when Boyd went over to the Timmins house one evening, he overheard Dylan and Janae arguing and realised what had been going on, so decided to have a little fun of his own. He mentioned to Janae that he’d decided to quit the medicine course as all of the girls on it were being rude and avoiding him, and he couldn’t cope with it for six more years. Janae realised that she’d gone too far and went back to the uni to see Georgia again, this time telling her to be nice to Boyd. However, Kim happened to be there, peddling more trade for DylDogs, and he sat down with Janae and made her realise that perhaps Boyd wasn’t being completely honest with her. She then got her own back, telling Boyd that she was thrilled with his decision to quit, as it meant that they could settle down and start having kids as soon as possible. After one comment too many about wedding plans, Boyd finally sat Janae down and told her that he knew she’d been threatening the girls on his course and it had to stop. She apologised for being jealous and agreed to try to be nicer to his female friends, but her promise wasn’t to last long. When Janae saw Boyd chatting to his new uni friend Sasha Hennessy, her protective streak quickly returned. Although she acted normally in front of Boyd, as soon as he left the two of them alone, Janae quickly warned Sasha to keep her hands off Boyd.

Following the birth of Boyd’s brother, Charlie, Janae started talking about having children of her own. During a conversation with Janelle in the General Store, Sasha happened to overhear and mentioned to Boyd that Janae was trying to trap him into marriage. The seeds of doubt were quickly sown and it wasn’t long before Boyd and Janae had split up, as he could no longer cope with her jealousy and she refused to allow him to change her. Janae struggled without Boyd in her life, and turned to neighbour Ned Parker when she needed a date for a school formal. The pair had a pleasant evening together, but Janae couldn’t get her mind off of Boyd and pulled away when Ned tried to kiss her. Things got worse for Janae when she accidentally read a letter – meant for her mother – which spoke about how Bree had been swapped with another baby at birth and wasn’t really a Timmins. Janae, realising that her parents had been sitting on this information for weeks, warned them that if they didn’t tell Bree, then she would. Although she turned to Boyd for advice, he pushed her away, not realising how serious her problem was, and left for a couple of weeks’ placement at a rural hospital. In his absence, Janae’s emotions got the better of her and she blurted out the truth to Bree about her parentage. Kim and Janelle were relieved when Bree decided not to look for her real family, and Janae was furious with the way the family buried their heads in the sand and ignored the problem. Upon Boyd’s return, he went straight over to visit Janae and admitted that he’d been unable to stop thinking about her and wanted them to get back together. Janae, however, was adamant that she could survive on her own and didn’t need a boyfriend who couldn’t accept her for who she was. Unable to take no for an answer, and in a last-ditch effort to prove he was serious about her, Boyd turned up later that day with a ring, got down on one knee and proposed, leaving Janae stunned.

After thinking it over, Janae agreed to marry Boyd, and Max, determined that the wedding would not go ahead, decided that asking Janae to move into the Hoyland house might make them realise that living together wouldn’t be all dinner parties and picket fences. Kim and Janelle were pleased with Max’s plan, but Steph felt that it was going to backfire. Her predictions proved to be true when Boyd and Janae overheard Max talking about his scheme and decided to prove him wrong by acting lovey-dovey whenever he came into the room. Steph, however, saw through the whole thing and told them just to be themselves and see how things worked out. But the decision was taken out of their hands the following week, when Kim and Janelle’s wedding ended in disaster, as the groom went on the run from the police. Max could hardly hide his disdain for the Timmins family and warned Boyd that if he didn’t call off the engagement, then he was no longer welcome in the house. Boyd called Max’s bluff, but Janae was in for a shock when she asked her mother if they could stay at number 26. Janelle had decided that they were too young to throw their lives away on marriage – as she had – and told them to find somewhere else to stay. They promptly did, and moved into number 30.

The young couple then proceeded to plan their wedding and hand out the invitations, but began to realise that nobody was that excited about it, particularly their families. Janae was surprised, however, when Boyd suggested that they forget all about their families and simply elope. Janae grabbed a fake birth certificate that she’d once used to get into clubs, and couldn’t resist telling Bree, or Summer, who had returned from boarding school to help plan the wedding. The four of them headed to the town hall where the ceremony went ahead, despite the younger girls’ attempts to stall it so that Max, Steph and Janelle could attend, after Summer secretly called them. Back in Ramsay Street, an impromptu reception party started for the newlyweds, only spoilt when Max turned up, having found out about the fake birth certificate and threatening to end the marriage before it had begun. Boyd, however, ignored his father’s threats and the young couple headed off on their honeymoon.

Upon their return, Janae decided to try and find them a rental property and get them out of Ramsay Street, keeping her plan a secret from Boyd. When Max then saw her in West Waratah, chatting with estate agent Thomas Griggs, he quickly jumped to the wrong conclusion. When Boyd got to hear about it all, he and Janae decided to get their own back on Max, as Boyd pretended that he trusted Janae completely and believed her weak excuses about being at the library or out on a biology excursion. But the joke quickly wore thin for Janae and she blurted out the truth to Max, who decided to try and help. When he spotted Thomas again in the bar one day, he approached him, in order to put in a good word for his son and daughter-in-law. But when Max mentioned that Janae was “mature for a 16-year-old”, he realised he’d put his foot in it, as Janae had claimed to be older, and Thomas couldn’t rent to someone so young. Although this latest crisis looked set to destroy Max and Boyd’s relationship completely, Janae and Steph managed to make them see that fighting wasn’t solving anything and the pair sat down for a proper chat, smoothed things over and moved on.

As she looked around her, at the other people on Ramsay Street, Janae started to worry about her marriage and told Boyd that they should have marriage counselling. When that failed to ease her concerns, she got a part-time job as a cleaner at the hospital, often causing more harm than good with the patients, but it meant that she could be closer to Boyd more often. Although Janae enjoyed it, Boyd felt smothered by her constant being around and affecting his reputation as a medical student. When Karl caught Boyd and Janae kissing, he warned her that she would lose her job if it happened again. Boyd quickly saw an opportunity and started kissing Janae in front of the nursing staff, but it all went wrong when one of the nurses admitted that nobody but Karl was really that bothered by it. Meanwhile, Janae’s studies were suffering as she concentrated on her new job and her marriage, and she felt out of her depth as she tried to complete year 12. After receiving a couple of cheques from her nan, Loris, who was secretly living in town and trying to keep it a secret from Janelle, Janae started paying a friend, Joanna Fleming, to write her essays. When Boyd found out, Janae lied to him that it had been a one-off and she would do her own work, but in the bar a few days later, Boyd saw Jo handing over another essay. This time, though, Janae said that the payment would have to wait and, when Jo refused to hand the work over, a fight broke out and the pair were caught by Susan. After being suspended, Janae suddenly announced that she’d had enough of school and had only stayed because it was expected of her, but she couldn’t keep up.

Janae quickly managed, with Steph’s help, to secure an apprenticeship at the garage, but her dream job quickly turned into a nightmare as she clashed with head mechanic Christine Rodd at every turn. When Janae took credit for the work done on a car, Chris was no impressed, and when the local newspaper ran a story on the all-female garage and a photographer turned up, Chris was furious as Janae got dolled up for the shoot, warning her that women in their job found it difficult enough to be taken seriously. Things reached crisis point between the pair when Janae spotted Chris happily greeting new Ramsay Street resident Pepper Steiger in the bar one day, and assumed she was gay. As Janae ranted at Chris about discriminating against straight people, Pepper piped up, asking if Janae was accusing her mum of being a lesbian, and Janae quickly backed off.

Things at home were also changing for Janae and Boyd. After Max ran down and killed Cameron Robinson, his sister, Elle, became intent on revenge and starting messing with his life, leaving him believing that he was going insane. After a few weeks, it all became too much, and Max admitted himself to hospital and, a few days later, believing that he was a burden on Steph, Boyd and Charlie, he walked out, boarded a bus and disappeared. Janae desperately tried to support Boyd and the pair moved back in with Steph and Charlie, having been made homeless by new tenants at number 30. But Boyd couldn’t cope with the way he’d treated his “mentally ill” father and admitted to Janae that, when some other medical students had mentioned a Max Hoyland on the psych ward, he had pretended that they weren’t related. Boyd’s guilt manifested into an obsession with finding his father, which took him to Tasmania, hoping that Max might visit Cameron’s grave, and leaving Janae behind to help Steph run the bar.

Upon Boyd’s return, Janae quickly realised that his behaviour was odd and she confronted him. Boyd admitted that he had been at a very low point in Tasmania and had kissed another girl, Glenn Forrest, after rescuing her from drowning. Although devastated, she agreed to forgive him and her mind was briefly taken off things when she was headhunted by rival garage Black Stallion Motors. Although she tried to get on in her new job, Janae quickly realised that new boss Rex Colt only wanted her there to wear a skimpy gold bikini, so she put a sign outside the garage, warning female customers that her boss was a pervert. When Rex spotted it, he angrily confronted Janae, locking her in his office, but her cries were heard by Pepper and her dad, Senior Sergeant Steiger, who happened to be passing and raced to her aid just as Janae threw a spanner at Rex’s head. Although Rex then decided to sue Janae for assault, Steiger quickly convinced him to drop the case and allow Janae to leave her job with as little fuss as possible. Having been taken back by Chris, Janae was surprised to catch her boss in a clinch with Carol, her ‘housemate’ but agreed not to say anything to Pepper. But when Chris did break the news to Pepper and Steiger, and Pepper reacted badly, Janae proved herself to be a good friend to Chris and even attempted to push her mum in Steiger’s direction, after they learnt that Kim wasn’t coming back.

With her work life sorted out, Janae’s relationship with Boyd took another blow when she found out that he had received a Christmas card from Glenn and kept it a secret. She then realised that Glenn didn’t even know that she existed, and so phoned her and warned her off before agreeing to give Boyd a second chance. Soon after, Janae was shocked when Elle told her that she’d seen Max at the supermarket with another woman and two young children. Refusing to believe it until she’d seen it with her own eyes, Janae made Elle take her to the house that she’d followed Max to. But when she tried to break the news to Boyd, she couldn’t bring herself to do it, so instead she went to see Max and told him to return home, if only to say a proper goodbye to Steph, Boyd and Charlie. Max did return but, despite his best efforts, he found that his marriage to Steph couldn’t be saved and the pair went their separate ways – Steph remaining in Erinsborough, while Max took a job on the rigs and moved to Sale.

Janae’s marriage was also facing trouble when Boyd’s Tasmanian fling, Glenn, arrived in town. It emerged that Glenn was a childhood friend of Elle Robinson, but, despite efforts from both Boyd and Glenn, they couldn’t talk Elle into cancelling the planned visit. When Glenn arrived, having suffered car trouble en route, she headed straight to the garage, but neither Glenn nor Janae realised that they were talking to “the other woman” until Boyd appeared, shocked at the scene that confronted him. A furious Janae found her entire world turned upside-down over the weeks that followed, as not only did she find herself battling Glenn for Boyd’s affections, but her niece – Dylan and Sky’s baby, Kerry – was diagnosed with leukaemia. Janae gave Boyd an ultimatum and offered him two weeks away from their marriage, to do whatever he wanted, before he had to choose. Convinced that Boyd would come back to her, Janae found a new project to concentrate on – restoring an old Triumph car – hoping that she and Boyd would be able to complete it together. But, only a few days into his two-week trial, Boyd told Janae that he wanted to be with Glenn, and their marriage was over. A stunned Janae struggled to cope – even kissing older Frazer Yeats when he offered her a shoulder to cry on – but things were about to get much worse. Having donated bone marrow to Kerry, and saved her life, Stingray died suddenly during a street party to celebrate Janelle’s birthday. And, as her friends and family found comfort in each other, a lonely Janae suddenly realised that she was on her own again.

Following Stingray’s funeral, and Boyd’s attempts to comfort Janae through it, Glenn left Erinsborough, but not before both women had mistakenly believed that they were pregnant to the same man. Dylan then also left Erinsborough to get his head together as his old anger issues resurfaced in the wake of his brother’s death, while Janae began to soften towards Boyd, despite her family warning her not to take him back. Following a couple of dates, Janae had made her decision and told Boyd that she didn’t want to resume their old relationship. An upset Boyd tried to stop her from leaving, but Janae was saved when Steph turned up. Boyd then made the decision to go and spend a few days with his dad, while, back in Erinsborough, Pepper suggested an annulment party, and Janae found another way to get the anger out of her system, as she took up boxing, with Lou as her coach. Meanwhile, Ned Parker returned to town, having taken some time out, and admitted that, earlier in the year, he’d been working for Paul to pay off some debts, and had been behind a burglary at the Timmins house, which had left the uninsured family with financial problems. Desperate to make up for his past mistakes, Ned agreed to be a slave to Janae and Janelle, helping out at the garage unpaid, where he slowly started taking over Janae’s boxing training. Though she was annoyed at having to spend time with him, she quickly realised that he knew what he was talking about and could help her to prepare for her first fight. Meanwhile, having sold their half of Lassiter's, Janae used her share of the money to buy into the garage, with Janelle eventually agreeing to buy the rest of it, giving them all a secure future.

As Ned and Janae started spending more and more time together, her resentment towards him gradually turned to love, and he felt the same way, though neither of them was prepared to admit it. After helping Janae prepare for her first fight, Ned was in for a shock when his old girlfriend Kirsten Gannon turned up with Mickey, her eight-year-old son. She broke the news to Ned that he was Mickey’s dad, before disappearing, leaving the boy behind. Janae supported Ned as he struggled to deal with parenthood being thrust upon him, but it looked like her time in Erinsborough was about to come to an end. When Anne Baxter – the girl Bree had been swapped with at birth – was determined to get to know her real family, it was decided that Janelle, Steiger and the girls would all relocate to Cairns, where the Baxters were living. After changing her mind a few times over leaving, Janae decided that Ned was never going to make a move on her and was preparing to leave, but Janelle had noticed what was happening with Ned and Janae, and told her daughter to stay and give it a chance. However, things were still slow between them, but their own relationship took a back seat, when Mickey went missing. After letting off the handbrake on a removal van – which Ned’s brother, Steve, and his family had been using to leave their extra furniture in Janae’s garage – Mickey was alarmed when it rolled into the road, colliding with a minibus carrying many of the street residents. In the chaos that followed, he managed to hide away unnoticed, but realising that the police wanted to speak to him, Mickey ran away with his dog, Jake.

After a few days, Mickey was found, having befriended older boy Declan Napier but, as they waited for news, Ned had admitted to Janae that he loved her. With Mickey home, he was acting like it had never happened, so Steve’s wife, Miranda, arranged for everyone to be out, and Janae confronted Ned about his feelings for her. With everything finally out in the open, Ned and Janae shared a kiss to seal their new relationship and, with Ned renting a room at Paul’s house, she asked him and Mickey to move into number 26 with her. They were soon joined by Steve, Miranda and their daughter, Bridget, and Ned and Janae realised that a full house could only have a negative effect on their love life. They soon had more important things to worry about, though, when Kirsten came back to Erinsborough, having got her head together and ready to take Mickey with her to Adelaide. With legal proceedings to see who would be granted custody of Mickey underway, Kirsten used underhand tactics to try and win, goading Janae about her rough family, and receiving a glass of water in the face for her trouble. However, when Ned, Janae, Mickey and Kirsten went to see the child psychologist at the hospital for her assessment, Kirsten was horrified when it was suggested that Mickey stay with his dad for now, causing her to snatch her son and drive off. When Ned and Janae caught up with her, Kirsten was about to leave, with Mickey, on a bus to Queensland, but, seeing how upset Mickey was about leaving his dad and new friends, she came to her senses and announced that she was heading back to Adelaide to sort herself out, but would then be returning to make Erinsborough her permanent home.

Over the weeks that followed, Ned, Janae and Mickey became a strong family unit - with all the ups and downs that entailed, including Ned and Janae's struggle to be intimate when they had no time to themselves, and Mickey getting locked in a trunk during a game of hide and seek and later being found at the council tip. When Kirsten then came back to town and Mickey wanted to spend time with her, Janae started to feel pushed out, particularly as Kirsten got her own flat nearby and flirted with Ned as he helped her put together some new furniture. Fearing the worst, Janae confronted Kirsten about her feelings, and she admitted that she did still have feelings for Ned and, perhaps if Janae weren't around, she would have made a move. Things only got worse when Kirsten and the Parkers were invited to a town reunion in Oakey and started reminiscing about old times. When both Janae and Kirsten were forced to work at the last minute, Janae was relieved that Ned would be going alone, but the plans changed as Kirsten got time off and ended up going. Worried about what was happening behind her back, Janae flew up to Queensland, arriving at the reunion to find that Ned and Kirsten hadn't turned up yet. When they did arrive, explaining that they'd got lost on a back road, Janae refused to believe it and lost her temper, pushing Kirsten into the drinks table. Back in Erinsborough, Janae's actions had a serious impact on her relationship with Ned, to the point that Steve and Miranda, who were planning to buy number 26 at auction, decided not to include Janae in their plans, fearing that her relationship with Ned wouldn't last long enough to repay the mortgage. Feeling like a stranger in her own home, Janae started thinking about spending Christmas up in Cairns with her family and ended up walking out and hiding from her problems at the garage, where Darren Stark was doing the same thing. Darren had recently cheated on girlfriend Libby Kennedy and was struggling to win her back, and had ended up befriending Janae over their troubled love lives, as she fixed his van while he mended some faulty wiring at the garage. As Darren comforted a distraught Janae, they ended up sharing a kiss, witnessed by an alarmed Kirsten, who had seen the lights on as she walked home from work.

Though she spotted Kirsten walking away from the garage, Janae had little time to dwell on what had happened, as news came through that the roof had collapsed on an illegal rave, which was being attended by several Ramsay Street youngsters. As everyone gathered at the accident site, Janae started receiving texts from Kirsten asking to meet, while Darren waited for news on Libby, who was trapped inside. Having survived, Libby decided to put her problems with Darren behind her and they made plans for a fresh start in Shepparton, but Janae was unable to cope with her guilt, or Kirsten's blackmail, and confessed all to Ned. Ned did his best to forgive Janae, but she knew that it was going to take a while for things to get back to normal, and she struggled seeing Libby everyday, desperate to confess everything. Unfortunately, the truth came out when Janae was talking to Darren at a neighbourhood barbecue, and, as she shouted above the music, it suddenly went off and everyone heard her tell Darren that 'we have to tell Libby'. The truth out, Libby and Darren's relationship was over, while Janae moved across the street to stay with Toadie and Steph for a while, with Ned furious with her for ruining so many lives due to her guilt. With Darren gone, Janae then faced more problems when she tried to explain things to Libby's six-year-old son, Ben, who was having a sleepover at Mickey's. Desperately missing Janae, Mickey had invited her, but the boys had ended up arguing over why Darren had left, with Janae's explanation that she kissed him only making matters worse. As Libby told Janae that sometimes you have to explain things in a way a child would understand, Janae realised how much she still had to learn and started to wonder if her presence was only making matters worse for Mickey, particularly when she found out that he was training Jake to bark whenever someone left the house, so Janae could move back and never leave him again. In the end, Janae made the difficult decision to leave Erinsborough for good, moving up north to stay with her family, and although neither Mickey nor Ned wanted her to go, they, along with Steph and Toadie, joined her at the airport for a tearful goodbye.

Trivia Notes
• Eliza Taylor-Cotter previously guest-starred in 2003 as Jacinta Martin
• Janae and Boyd's song is Arithmetic by Brooke Fraser
• Janae is left-handed
• Janae’s cell phone number was 0432014941