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Neighbourhood > Guest Character Profiles > Kim Timmins Brett Swain

Kim Timmins 2005-2006, 2007
Parents: Alwyn and Loris
Marital Status: Janelle Rebecchi
Children: Dwayne, Brandon, Dylan, Scott [Stingray], Janae and Anne; Bree (adoptive)
Family Tree: Timmins
Occupation: Hot Dog Salesman, Barman, Boat Tour Operator

The slightly more chilled-out husband to Janelle Timmins, and father of their six children, Kim came from a slightly more affluent background than his wife, who was part of one of the rougher families in Colac, the Rebecchis. Kim and Janelle had met at a young age, but Kim’s parents disapproved of Janelle, believing that she was only with Kim for his money. Janelle, however, knew nothing of her scruffy surfer boyfriend’s rich family. When Kim announced plans to marry Janelle, his parents threatened to cut off his inheritance if he did, but Kim was in love and decided that he didn’t need the money. As the years went on, his parents made another offer – this time, he would be provided with a job and a large home for his family and he could stay with Janelle. Pride stopped Kim from accepting and, before long, he’d walked out on Janelle and the kids, unable to cope with the guilt. Over the years, Kim came and went many times, but the family was never back together for long.

Since the eldest kids, Brandon and Dwayne, had both moved on, Janelle allowed the others to believe that she’d thrown Kim out due to his womanising ways. In the years that followed, Janelle and the four remaining children, Dylan, Scott, Janae and Bree, all found themselves living in Ramsay Street, Erinsborough, the home of Janelle’s lawyer nephew, Toadfish. Kim’s guilt over turning his parents’ offer down was enough ammunition for Janelle to keep him away from the kids for a long time, but when Dylan went missing, presumed dead, in a plane crash, Kim rushed to be with his family. The whole truth about Kim’s vanishing act came out, but the kids were too concerned about Dylan to truly care. When Bree threatened to leave with her dad if Janelle threw him out again, she allowed him to stay on. As the days went on, Kim managed to bond with both Bree and Scott, who, in the grand Rebecchi tradition, had been given the fish nickname of Stingray. However, despite being united by grief, it looked like it would be a while before the Timmins family was a solid unit again.

As they prepared to Dylan’s memorial service, the family managed to put their differences aside and work out what he would have wanted. But they were all amazed when he turned up at his own memorial, having actually been on the run from the law over a crime he’d been forced to commit when old enemy Reuben Hausman kidnapped Stingray. With Stingray and Dylan both on remand, Kim attempted to prove his worth and hold the family together by getting work alongside Joe Mangel at Lassiter’s. But when the boys were sent to prison, it proved to be a testing time for his relationship with Janelle and she announced that she no longer needed him around. Bree and Janae weren’t about to let their parents give up on each other, however, and Bree managed to let down the tyres on Kim’s combi to stop him from going. This allowed her and Janae enough time to convince Janelle that Kim was her true love and she couldn’t give up on him. Kim and Janelle were reunited just in time for Christmas, which also saw Stingray and Dylan released from prison after Roo was tricked into confessing to his crimes.

As things were really beginning to look up for the family – Janelle had found a publisher for her novel The Bogan’s Tipped Hair and Kim had found work at the Scarlet Bar – disaster struck once more. This time, it was Janae who found herself in trouble, but decided only to confide in Bree. Janae had found out that her ex-boyfriend, Mike Pill, had been diagnosed as HIV positive and, since they’d had unprotected sex, she was concerned that she might have contracted it. Unable to cope with the problem alone, Bree told Kim, who gave Janae his support and accompanied her to the surgery for tests, agreeing not to tell Janelle for the time being. Fortunately, the tests came back negative and, as Janelle also found out, it brought the family closer together. But when Kim lost his new job as a barman after missing one shift too many, Janelle had finally had enough, and it looked like the family would be split up again. It wasn’t until Zeke Kinski confronted Janelle with a simple question – did she love Kim – that she realised that she couldn’t see him leave again. Instead, she headed to Lassiter’s, where Kim was helping Dylan run a hotdog cart, and proposed, suggesting that a second wedding, more elaborate and romantic than the first, might be just what their relationship needed. Although Kim was delighted, he began to realise that he was going to have to work ridiculously long hours on the hotdog cart in order to just pay for Janelle’s dress. However, when one of Stingray’s new uni friends, from his film studies course, approached Kim about some pirate DVDs he’d made for his son, Kim stumbled upon a way to make some easy money and, unbeknownst to his family, he started using the hotdog cart as a cover for a pirated DVD business.

With planning for the re-wedding under way, and the DVD pirating business taking off, Kim’s life was busy enough without the revelation that he wasn’t the biological father of one of his children. When Bree needed some DNA samples for a school project, Kim was stunned when his didn’t match his daughter’s. Janelle insisted that she had never cheated, and demanded that the whole family be tested this time, as the original results must have been wrong. They were in for an even bigger shock, though, when the next results showed that neither Kim nor Janelle were biologically related to Bree. After a little investigation, they tracked down Louise Fletcher, who had been the midwife at the Colac Hospital on the night of Bree’s birth. Louise admitted that she remembered the night in question, as she’d been distracted by a major incident and had always worried that she had mixed up two of the babies. After faking some new DNA results, Kim and Janelle gave them to Bree and decided not to tell her the truth. However, fate stepped in and Louise sent them a letter, addressed to J Timmins, which Janae accidentally opened. Having learnt the truth, she told her parents that they had to tell Bree, as it wasn’t fair to deceive her about such a life-changing thing. After a few days, unable to cope with the burden of the secret any longer, Janae blurted it out to Bree during an argument. A stunned Bree immediately decided that she wanted to track down her biological parents – whose details Louise had given to Kim and Janelle. But, as they arrived at the house in Colac, Bree suddenly had a change of heart and told a relieved Kim and Janelle that she wanted things to stay as they were.

Meanwhile, Kim’s pirating business was getting more and more out of control, as more members of the family found out about it. Bree found Kim’s stash of money in the garage, while Dylan spotted his father doing a deal and demanded to be let in on the business. With the wedding only days away, Kim realised that he had to own up to Janelle about how it was being paid for. Although she was shocked, she quickly spotted an opportunity and stole the $10,000 from the stash in the garage, and put a deposit on a new family house in Paradise Lakes. Kim then opted to abandon the whole DVD business, deciding that it was becoming too risky and concentrated on making Janelle’s second wedding day a memorable affair. Sadly, though, it turned out to be memorable for all the wrong reasons, when the police, having uncovered Kim as the mastermind behind the DVD business, turned up to arrest him. Having endured being tied naked to his surfboard after the bucks’ night and almost losing the wedding ring in the swimming pool, Kim wasn’t about to let this latest disaster ruin the day completely. As Stingray and Dylan distracted the police, Kim and Janelle completed their vows. He then made his apologies to his wife and daughters and made a quick getaway through the back door, leaving his family to once again pick up the pieces.

After spending some time in Northern Queensland, assisting with boat tours around Port Douglas, and regularly sending money home to the family, Kim had finally got his act together, when Bree got in touch to tell him that Stingray had died suddenly from an aneurysm. When he got back to Erinsborough, Kim was alarmed to find that there'd been a few changes in his absence, not least that Janelle was now dating Senior Sergeant Allan Steiger. As the funeral took place, Kim was alarmed by Dylan's grief, as his son grew increasingly distant, allowing aggression to build up inside. Though Steiger warned Kim that he would have to arrest him after the funeral, he too was concerned for Dylan, who admitted that he was close to killing someone. When Dylan then trashed the bar, Steiger came up with another plan, telling Kim to take Dylan back up north with him and give him the chance to sort his head out for a few months. And so, as everyone remembered Stingray at the wake, Dylan said his goodbyes to his family and left with his dad.

Trivia Notes
• Brett Swain previously played the duck hunter who killed Kerry in 1990 and Buzz Wade in 1992. In 1993, he appeared (in voice only) as a horse racing commentator on the radio during Brad Willis' gambling addiction and later that year as a painter who was redecorating number 22 prior to Cheryl Stark moving in
• Brett is the real-life partner of Marcella Russo, who played Liljana between 2003 and 2005

Magic Moments
Episode 4841: Kim's Arrival
Episode 4978: Kim and Janelle's Wedding: Part One
Episode 4979: Kim and Janelle's Wedding: Part Two