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Character Profiles > Cara Varga-Murphy Sara West

Cara Varga-Murphy 2023-
Lived: 30 Ramsay Street
Marital Status: Remi
Children: JJ and Dex
Siblings: Chelsea
Occupation: Building Manager at Lassiters Hotel

After someone knocked on the door of their Werribee home one day and made them an offer on the house, the Varga-Murphys - mums Remi and Car, and their sons JJ and Dex - accepted, before JJ used Rent-A-Home to find them temporary accommodation at 24 Ramsay Street, Erinsborough. Tradie Cara had still been hoping to return to Werribee and build them their own home, but Remi admitted that she had reservations about the idea. Cara’s previous job had been working for the Linwell brothers, building a sports stadium, but things had ended badly when she’d blown the whistle on their poor working practices, and they’d spray painted a warning on the side of her truck. Cara insisted that the warning had been a one-off, and they were safe to return to Werribee, but Remi had already begun to fall in love with the close community of Ramsay Street, and when no. 30 went on the market, she persuaded Cara that they needed a fresh start and should buy it. With only an hour before owner Toadie Rebecchi had before accepting another offer on the house, Cara and Remi were forced to let JJ and Dex know the plan by text message, receiving a reply telling them to go ahead.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the boys hadn’t read the message properly and weren’t quite as keen as their mums to move suburbs and change schools, with JJ having a particularly strong response to the idea, storming out of the house. Things quickly got worse when neighbour Wendy Rodwell accused JJ of stealing her watch. JJ had been caught in the Rodwell house by Wendy’s daughter Sadie, where he claimed that he was just looking to borrow some milk, having seen other Ramsay Street residents let themselves in and out of each other’s houses. Wendy then made a very public accusation of theft, with Remi and Cara leaping to their son’s defence, before explaining that they’d bought no. 30 and they would all now be permanent neighbours. Though Wendy later found the watch, the feud between the two families only worsened when Cara scored the job as Lassiters Hotel’s new Building Manager, a role that Wendy had hoped to win for herself. As Cara started the job, Wendy spotted some cable in her truck in the car park, making note of the address, believing that the hotel’s new employee was up to something shifty. As Sadie worked as babysitter for Abigail Tanaka, the granddaughter of hotel owner Paul Robinson, Wendy asked her to have a snoop whilst in Paul’s office and take some pictures of Cara’s CV. Noting that the cable was being sent to the new stadium being built in Werribee, Wendy was interested to see that the stadium job wasn’t included on Cara’s CV. After doing some research, she decided to contact the Linwell brothers herself, only to find herself having to answer their questions over Cara's whereabouts, rather than learning anything new.

After Cara put up a ceiling fan outside the bar, which promptly crashed down later that day, Wendy felt that she was right, and that Cara wasn't up to the job, particularly as she seemed to have disappeared without telling anyone. But when Wendy found out that Cara and Remi had been called to the school, because Dex was being taunted about having two mums, she started to feel guilty. Wendy confessed everything to her husband, Andrew, and later that day, they visited the Varga-Murphys, where Wendy admitted that she'd found the missing watch at home in her laundry basket - the day after it had gone missing. Remi and Cara were stunned that Wendy had kept this information to herself for a week, and a furious Cara promptly threw her out of the house.

When Remi’s car window was then smashed, this, coupled with the earlier incident with the fan, made her wonder if the Linwell brothers had something to do with it. Cara was sure that the school bullies were the more likely culprits for the smashed window, but she then got a call explaining that the Linwells were being taken to court for their unsafe work practices, and Cara was a key witness. Now more convinced that Remi might have been right all along, Cara pressed ahead with her plans to testify and not be intimidated, but matters came to a head when an envelope containing white powder was delivered to the Varga-Murphys. Remi opened it, and quickly sent Cara and the boys out of the house, worried that it could be anthrax. Outside the house, Cara, JJ and Dex waited for news, as Andrew tried to keep them all calm. When Wendy found out what had happened, she felt terrible, admitting that her jealousy over the job had led to her checking Cara’s CV and contacting the Linwells. Wendy’s guilt then led to her sneaking into no. 30 and sitting with Remi, willing to risk her life rather that allow her to go through the terrifying experience on her own. When word finally came through that the substance was actually baking powder, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but Cara took her fear and anger out on the Rodwells, saying that the two families would have nothing more to do with each other.

It was during this argument that JJ suddenly blurted out his own big secret - that he believed that Andrew might be his father. He explained to everyone, except Dex who already knew, that he’d found the diary of Philippa Wade, Cara’s best friend who had died. The diary said that 17 years earlier, Andrew had offered to give a sperm sample to Philippa and her girlfriend to give them the baby that they wanted. But after Philippa and her girlfriend had split up, she had given the sample to Cara, who’d been trying to get pregnant with an anonymous American donor. The revelations were news to both Remi and Wendy, whilst Andrew admitted his part, but said that he’d changed his mind and had always believed that Philippa had destroyed the sample. As Remi and Cara realised that it hadn’t been a coincidence that they’d ended up renting 24 Ramsay Street a few weeks earlier, as JJ had planned the whole thing, they all struggled to deal with the news, as they waited for a DNA test to confirm whether Andrew was really JJ’s biological father. The news took its toll on JJ and Dex’s relationship, with Dex furious that JJ had potentially destroyed their family, while Remi struggled to even speak to Cara after what she’d done. As the results came back and confirmed that JJ and Andrew were not related, it seemed that a lot of damage had been done, both to the trust between Cara and Remi, and to JJ, who struggled to admit that he had wanted to have a father in his life.

The whole incident left Remi struggling to forgive Cara and she decided to go and spend a few days with her parents. When she returned, JJ and Dex did their best to get their mums' relationship back on track, recreating their first date and making them both realise that what they had was worth fighting for. However, just as things seemed to be settling down for the Varga-Murphys on Ramsay Street, Cara's flighty sister Chelsea turned up. With Remi and Cara enjoying dinner with neighbours Aaron and David - a former doctor who Remi had initially struggled to get along with due to his past charge with medical manslaughter - Chelsea turned up unannounced. Whilst Remi was unhappy to see Chelsea, worried about her lack of morals and the way her wife changed her personality around her, Cara was delighted. It quickly became clear that this wasn't just a chance to catch up with family, however, as Chelsea revealed that she was deeply in debt and had set her sights on Cara's boss, the wealthy Paul Robinson, and had been plotting this before she'd even arrived in Erinsborough. With tensions between Remi and Chelsea causing problems at no. 30, and Chelsea making digs about the happily-married Remi and Cara settling for each other and their boring life, Cara decided to ask her sister to leave. Chelsea's next move was to persuade Paul, who was grieving for his son, David, that she should move into his penthouse to look after him and then to get him to appoint her as Acting Manager of the hotel. Though Remi, Cara and many of the other locals were upset with her actions, the Varga-Murphys soon had other things to worry about when JJ started being targeted by Slade Westall, the leader of a gang who'd been causing trouble in the area. After JJ reported them for spraying graffiti on Melanie's Drinks Divas van on Ramsay Street, JJ ended up being beaten up by Slade one lunchtime. Looking to defend himself, a terrified JJ stole a knife from Harolds cafe and took it back to school with him. When the knife was found by teacher Curtis Perkins, JJ eventually confessed, with Remi and Cara shocked to learn what their son had been going through.

JJ received a two-week suspension from school, but was still determined to find ways to defend himself and went to Andrew to ask for boxing lessons.