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Guest Character Profiles > Moira Tohu Robyn Arthur

When retirement complex Eirini Rising opened next to Erinsborough High School, problems quickly arose, with the complex being targeted by students' pranks and residents having items stolen from their rooms. Matters soon escalated when one of the residents, Moira Tohu, told manager and owner Terese Willis that her credit card had been stolen and unauthorised purchases had been made. When residents' assistant JJ Varga-Murphy overheard Moira talking about some of the things that her card had been used for, including clothing from the expensive brand Corrie & Sun, he remembered seeing student Jasmine Stewart wearing a new jacket from that brand. As Moira got her card cancelled, JJ confronted Jasmine about what she'd done and, although she denied everything, he caught her out when she mentioned Moira's name before he did.

After failing to win the election for Eirini Rising's residents' representative, Moira became a regular visitor to Susan and Terese at the office and Dr Karl at his surgery, with a constant stream of complaints. When she turned up one day to tell Susan about her hat, a gift from her late husband Lester, that had gone missing, Susan insisted that she would do everything she could to track it down. Meanwhile, with Karl and Susan now working together, she was concerned that her husband had 'workzoned' her and their sex life was suffering. As they both had the afternoon off, they made arrangements to meet up in Karl's consultation room to watch their favourite Scandi drama but, after arriving early, Susan had another idea. After finding Moira's missing cabbage flower hat in the room, Susan stripped off, planning to surprise Karl by wearing only the hat when he turned up. Unfortunately, Moira then walked in, shocked to find both a naked Susan and the missing hat.

A couple of months later, after hearing about a charity male revue that was being planned at Lassiters hotel, Moira, with encouragement from Hilary, decided to stage a protest. As she handed out pamphlets and asked for signatures on her petition, she was spotted by Paul and Krista, the hotel's joint managers. With Krista having organised the event, and Paul thinking that it was a terrible idea, he stood back and pointed out that Moira and Hilary were respected members of the community and their opinion was valid. Krista, however, attempted to move Moira on, warning her about harassing hotel guests. Moira persisted, however, leaving Krista worried that, if the petition got enough signatures then the hotel would have to listen and the event would be cancelled. It was then that hotel employee Sam suggested that they could use the disappearing ink pen, which was going to be used for one of the acts in the revue. Aaron, who was choreographing and dancing the event, then swapped it for the pen on Moira's petition when she was distracted and, after spending hours getting signatures which then mysteriously disappeared, Moira abandoned the petition. However, when she later spotted a half-naked Aaron - who had been called into work whilst still wearing his velcro stripper trousers, which then fell apart in the middle of the hotel complex - Moira was more certain than ever that the whole thing was 'smut'.

Fortunately, Susan managed to get hold of tickets for another event being held on the same night as Boylesque and, after giving them to Moira and her friends, only a couple of protestors turned up. Whilst Boylesque proved to be a huge success, Moira soon had something else to complain about when a bottle went missing from her wine delivery. Worried that the thefts had started again, she complained to Terese and Susan, who assured her that they would look into it. Terese, however, was actually hoping that the matter would go away, as she had stolen the wine, with everyone around her unaware that she'd fallen off the wagon and started drinking again in the wake of her split from husband, Toadie. With no updates for a couple of weeks, and the police having no interest in her complaints, Moira again approached Terese, who told her that nothing could be done and she would just have to let it go. Terese's drinking then caused a bigger problem at Eirini Rising when she stayed late one evening to wait for a laundry delivery and started drinking. When she was eventually able to go home, she managed to reverse her car into the gas pipe, damaging it and causing a gas leak that meant that all the residents, including a deeply worried Moira, had to be evacuated.

After initially trying to cover up what she'd done, with help from ex-husband Paul Robinson, Terese eventually realised that she had to come clean. As she confessed to her horrified colleagues and the residents of Eirini Rising, Moira was vocal with her disgust over the whole thing, particularly as Gino had been taken to hospital after the gas leak, where he'd suffered a heart attack. Aware of how serious the problem was, Susan then asked Terese to resign from her position, if there was any hope of the retirement centre continuing to operate. Moira was then amongst those who watched as Terese packed up her things and left Eirini. When Karl and Susan then found out that a group of residents were planning a class action lawsuit, claiming that unrelated health issues were actually caused by the gas leak, they asked Harold for his help. Aware that Moira respected Harold and his opinion, they asked him to invite her for coffee and make her see that she was lonely and was just using the lawsuit as an excuse to meet up with other people. The plan worked, as Harold pointed out the more likely causes for the other residents' recent ailments and made Moira see that this wasn't the way to make friends. She then agreed to speak to the others about dropping the lawsuit plans.

Though the lawsuit was soon forgotten, it seemed that there was another drama brewing when Terese returned from rehab and asked about returning to work. Harold agreed to speak to the other residents about the possibility, even if it meant that she was just doing paperwork from home and, although some people with fine with it, Moira and Hilary were particularly unhappy with the idea. Moira took legal advice from Tim Collins and an emergency residents' meeting was arranged, where Moira announced that she had been chosen to replace Harold as residents' rep, as people no longer had faith in his abilities, and that, if Terese did return to work, then it would be in breach of the contracts they had signed when they moved in and they would all be due a refund.

When Yasmine Shields arrived in Erinsborough, claiming that she was there to organise a huge lighting event for the suburb, but actually there to investigate the death of her brother, Heath, she spoke to many local businesses about arranging sponsorship. After speaking to Susan, it was decided that part of the event would take place at Eirini, and Yaz met with Moira and Gino to talk about a theme for their display. As they struggled to come up with an idea that everyone could agree on, Terese found out what was going on and came up with the idea of 'Lost Loves', allowing the residents to celebrate lost spouses, family members, friends and pets. Quickly realising that nobody would take the suggestion if it came from her, Terese was touched when Toadie took the idea to Moira and Gino, who were very impressed.

As Christmas approached, Karl went to Italy to spend a couple of weeks on a motorbike tour with his friend, Mike Young. Only days later, Susan received word that, following a crash, Karl needed an operation on his leg and several weeks of recovery before he could begin rehab. Though desperate to go and be with Karl, Susan was aware that nobody else was able to run Eirini in her absence, so it was put to the retirement home residents that Terese be allowed to return, so that Susan could go to Italy. Though Moira was vehemently opposed, many of the other residents were convinced that, rather than helping Terese, they were doing this for Karl and Susan. The vote then passed in Terese's favour and she was enormously grateful, telling Moira that she knew that she still had a long way to go before many of the residents would trust her again.

Trivia Notes
• Robyn Arthur previously appeared as Melody Jones between 2003 and 2008

Episodes Featured
9065, 9080, 9129, 9130, 9138, 9142, 9144, 9151, 9157, 9161

Biography by Steve

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