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Character Profiles > Brad Willis Benjamin Mitchell, Scott Michaelson, Kip Gamblin

Bradley [Brad] Willis 1989, 1991-1993, 2013-2017
Lives: 22 Ramsay Street
Lived: 28 Ramsay Street
Parents: Doug and Pam Willis
Marital Status: Beth Brennan (1993-?; Divorced), Terese (199?-2016; Divorced), Lauren (2016-)
Siblings: Adam, John, Gaby and Cody
Children: Paige, Ned, Joshua, Imogen, Piper
Family Tree: Willis
Occupation: Barman, Surfboard Maker, P.E./Health Teacher, Swimming Coach, Gym Manager, Yoga Instructor

The laid-back son of Doug and Pam Willis, Brad had little interest in academic qualifications, preferring to go for a surf rather than do any studying. He first encountered the residents of Ramsay Street when he went on a couple of dates with Sharon Davies - the first to a basketball game in which he was playing, and the second to a drive-in movie where he annoyed Sharon by falling asleep.

Soon after, Brad went on a basketball scholarship to the USA and, whilst he was away, his parents and siblings Cody and Adam moved into 28 Ramsay Street, later joined by sister Gaby, who returned home after studying in Japan. It was only a few days after Gaby returned to the family fold that Brad also returned, having spent weeks in an Asian prison en route, after being wrongly accused of drug smuggling. Brad quickly readjusted to life back in Australia, getting up early to go surfing, but immediately made himself unpopular when it appeared that he'd brought the Bagee flu back with him, causing the household to go into lockdown, along with Paul Robinson, who'd been at the house earlier that day. After a night with the Willis family, the test results came through, revealing that it was just a normal strain of flu, and Paul could go home. Further drama followed when Brad was making a surfboard and accidentally blinded neighbour Josh Anderson.

Though Pam wanted her son to return to school and complete year 12, he made it clear that he had no intention of doing so, and instead turned his love of creating surfboards into a business and running it from the Willis garage. Things got off to a bad start when the garage was robbed, with all of the surfboards, and Brad's designs, taken. The only clue Brad could find was a pendant in the garage with half a coin on it. When he spotted a similar half-coin on the keyring of his neighbour, Guy Carpenter, and found it to be a match, Brad was convinced that Guy was the one who'd robbed him. Guy, however, explained to Gaby, who'd been sent by Brad to try and find out more information, that the half-coin had been given to him by a girl he'd met when he first came to Erinsborough. Meanwhile, as Brad tried to find ways to make some money and re-start his business, he was offered a job by Paige Sneddon, who ran her own surf shop and had heard good things about Brad's skills as a surfer and designer. He was happy to accept, but one day a man came into the shop with one of Brad's old board, claiming that he'd bought it there and looking for it to be repaired. Paige denied any knowledge of the board when confronted by Brad, claiming that it must have been the work of Gary, her previous employee. However, when Guy later spotted Paige and Brad together, he recognised her as the girl he'd been on the date with, and realised that she must have been the one who robbed Brad. Brad had already fallen for Paige and was reluctant to believe what Guy was telling him, but soon after, he found many of his stolen boards in her garage and was forced to face up to the fact that she'd conned him. Although he agreed not to go to the police, he told Paige that he never wanted to see her again.

That Christmas, Brad went up to Queensland for a holiday with Josh and Lucy but found an intruder named David Brennan in their holiday home, along with his sister, Beth. As Lucy began a relationship with David, and Beth enjoyed the attention of both Brad and Josh, it quickly became apparent that the siblings were hiding something and they were forced to admit that they were on the run - David had attacked their mum's boyfriend after he'd caught him trying it on with Beth and, after realising he had no pulse, they'd run away. After realising that they'd have to go to the police, David and Beth were spending one final day in the company of their new friends when their mum turned up, explaining that her boyfriend had survived the attack and had then tried it on with another teenaged girl in the street. She'd tracked them down and had been searching Surfer's Paradise for days. David and Beth then went home with her, and Beth said goodbye to Brad - though he didn't realise it at the time, Brad would see Beth again, and she would become a very important part of his life in the years that followed.

Despite his teetotal status and inability to handle even a small amount of alcohol, Brad got a job at the Waterhole, passing out on his first day there when he got carried away testing his new cocktails. Brad also grew closer to Lucy and, one evening, after she'd set fire to the Coffee Shop kitchen and lost her job there, she was drowning her sorrows and ended up drunk. Brad offered to drive her home, but they stopped on the way and Lucy suddenly jumped into the driver's seat, almost crashed into another car and ended up in the lake. When the police arrived, teetotal Brad decided to say that he'd been driving, thinking that it was helping Lucy, but he ended up with a court summons and a $4000 bill from the owner of the other car, damaged in the accident. However, with things going so badly for Brad, and his Auntie Faye blackmailing her over the incident, Lucy decided to come clean. Though Brad was relieved to be off the hook, he told Lucy that he'd be happy to do it all again, and it became clear that he saw her as more than just a friend. They then grew closer when Lucy took some casual work behind the bar, and managed to get rid of a girl who'd been watching Brad all night, by pretending that she was his girlfriend. As Lucy fell more and more for Brad, and he failed to notice, she helped him to get a trial as the manager of the Waterhole, but was furious when he turned down the offer, claiming that he couldn't deal with the responsibility, and then told Lucy that he had a date with a gorgeous girl he met at the beach. When that date went wrong, Brad asked Lucy to come and repeat the whole experience with him, so he could figure out why it ended so badly. After leaving the restaurant together, Brad explained to Lucy that the car had broken down and he'd asked her to get in the back - he'd only meant that he wanted her to find the tools, but she'd taken it the wrong way and jumped in a taxi. Lucy was amused at the whole thing, and Brad put his arm around her as he tried to reenact the rest of the date, but failed to realise how much Lucy was enjoying their new closeness.

When Brad helped a man named Walter Schofield, a diabetic who'd fallen unconscious in the bar, Walter was very grateful and when Brad then found his wallet and returned it to him, he was shocked to find that the old man was extremely wealthy. Appreciating Brad's honesty, Walter tried to give him a cheque for $50,000, but Brad turned it down. Walter then visited Brad at home, and offered him a job in the print room at Schofield Industries. Having just lost his job at the Waterhole - after becoming mixed up in a protection racket involving cheap booze - Brad was tempted, but only accepted on the condition that he could have regular time off to go surfing. Lucy was delighted to hear about Brad's new job and kissed him on the cheek, but in the meantime, Beth had arrived in Erinsborough and moved in with the Robinsons, and she made it clear that, since Brad and Lucy weren't even a couple, she was going to try to get a date with him too. Unaware that he had two women fighting for his affections, Brad tried to enjoy his new job, but found it incredibly boring. During a chat with Walter, he gave him some advice about winning back a lost client, which proved fruitful, and Walter then gave Brad a promotion. As he waited for his new job as a junior executive to begin, Brad remained oblivious to the tension between Beth and Lucy, as they each competed to spend time with him and win him over. Brad was amazed, as he started working for Walter's company, by the huge office he'd been given, but remained confused about what he was actually supposed to do. When he learnt that there was a company ball coming up, he decided to invite either Lucy or Beth, but only as friends, as he still believed that neither of them was interested in more than friendship. Lucy was heartbroken when Brad decided to take Beth, but the ball proved to be disastrous for Brad's new career when one of the guests started cracking on to Beth, and Brad pulled the man away from her, only to learn that he was one of Walter's biggest prospective clients. Ultimately, Walter decided to keep Brad on, but realising that he was useless at the job, and only being kept on because Walter looked at him like a son, Brad decided to quit.

Having upset Beth by saying that he saw her as a friend, Brad admitted to his mum that it was Lucy he still liked. He prepared to ask her out, only for her, unaware she was on the verge of her dream man asking her out, to get annoyed at him for quitting his job and wasting the opportunity of a lifetime. After his disasters at the Waterhole and with Walter, Brad was beginning to think that he was unemployable, and wondered if it would be a good idea to focus on his surfboard designs. With Lucy now focused on a business career, having scored a job at the Lassiter's office, and with Beth moving into a tentative new relationship with Marco Alessi, it looked like Brad would be alone again. But after Lucy quit her new job, and Brad sold one of his designs, the tables were turned again. Unaware of the money Brad had just come into, Lucy wrote him a note, explaining her feelings for him. But when she had second thoughts about giving it to him, it was delivered anyway, by a matchmaking Toby Mangel. Brad, however, was annoyed, feeling that Lucy was only interested in him because he was earning big money again and they ended up falling out yet again, eventually deciding that life had been much simpler when they were just friends, with no added complications. Unfortunately, before Brad and Lucy could become a couple, she had a brief flirtation with his cousin, Cameron and then, barely days into the relationship, Lucy broke then news that she'd been offered a modelling job, which would mean a permanent move to Singapore. At first, Brad decided to go with her, but having signed a contract for his surfboard designs, he realised that he wouldn't be able to go, breaking the news to Lucy on the night before she left. Believing that it would be too difficult to say goodbye, Brad almost missed Lucy leaving the street, but at the last minute, he turned up and shared a final kiss with her.

Lucy's departure not only left Brad without a girlfriend, but also without a model for the upcoming ad campaign for his surfboard designs. When Beth asked if she could fill in, Brad was worried when he found out that the designers wanted them to kiss in the ads, but when the photographer decided that there wasn't enough passion, he roped in Rick Alessi, who'd been watching the shoot, as a replacement. This time, the kiss was much more convincing, but as Rick developed a crush on Beth, she had to make it clear that the kissing would only be in photos, and nothing else could happen between them. A humiliated Rick pulled out of the next shoot, forcing Brad to step in, but bigger drama was to come when Bob Landers, the father of Todd arrived in Ramsay Street, on the run from the law. Bob had escaped from police custody during Todd's funeral a few weeks earlier and was at 30 Ramsay Street, holding Pam and Phoebe - Todd's pregnant girlfriend - as hostages. When Phoebe escaped and told Brad what was going on, he ran inside the house and ended up getting shot in the shoulder. During his recovery, Brad took part in a radio scavenger hunt with Beth, and the pair won a weekend away together. Meanwhile, Brad went out - just as friends, as he was doing his best to stay faithful to Lucy - with Wendy, the sister of his best mate Swampy. With Marco still desperate to win Beth over, the four of them ended up going on the weekend away together - which, unbeknownst to the girls, turned out to be a murder mystery holiday. When they returned to Erinsborough, Wendy tried asking Brad out on a real date, but he turned her down - soon after, however, Lucy phoned, admitting that she'd been on dates with other guys, and suggesting that Brad should start to move on, too.

Over the weeks that followed, Brad and Beth grew closer, and she began to worry about her inexperience with men and her hang-ups about sex, due to her mother's boyfriend. After chatting to Phoebe one day, about Phoebe's relationship with Todd, Beth came to the conclusion that sex might be easier with someone if they were friends already, so she stunned Brad by asking him to take her virginity. Believing that it would ruin their friendship, Brad turned her down, only for things to become extremely awkward between them anyway. Things remained difficult, until one day they were both waiting at the building site, where Beth worked and Brad was doing his dad a favour by helping her. Sheltering in the car from the rain, waiting for a delivery, they talked things through and ended up kissing, and then having sex. Both feeling a little awkward about the sudden shift in the their relationship - and wondering how they would tell Lucy - they both ended up confiding in Marco, who was still hung up on Beth and quite jealous of Brad. He managed to convince them both that neither wanted a relationship with the other but, after feeling guilty and realising that Beth would never see him as more than a friend, Marco arranged a surprise romantic dinner for Brad and Beth, and they officially became a couple.

Brad's life was on the line once again a few weeks later, when he was attacked by a shark whilst out surfing. The attack terrified him, although he struggled to admit it, even though the only serious damage was a huge bite mark from his board. Over the weeks that followed, Brad's mood swings and rash actions started to worry Beth and his friends, until he realised that he needed to deal with what had happened, and he started by giving the surfboard to Cathy Alessi to hang up in the Coffee Shop. Brad then entered into a war with Gaby over who should be the new manager of the Waterhole, but the siblings' squabbles soon disappeared when Beth and their young neighbour Hannah Martin were trapped in a fire at an old cottage near Lassiters. Brad managed to save the pair of them, and was hailed a hero, but he became depressed with all of the attention, admitting that he was still too scared to go surfing again, so he didn't feel like much of a hero. Beth tried to help Brad get back in the sea, but a trip to the beach ended badly when he refused to even go near the water's edge, and he became convinced that he'd never move on from his phobia. It wasn't until a fishing trip with Doug a few days later, that Brad was forced to face his fear. Stranded in the middle of the ocean when the boat's motor gave up, Brad knew that his dad would never make it to shore, so he'd have to go. Brad swam to the beach, where he met up with Jim Robinson and the pair attempted to find Doug, but with no luck. Hours later, Doug was found and the Willis family celebrated, with Brad marking his return to surfing with a holiday in Bali, with his good mate Swampy.

Upon his return, Brad decided to show Beth that he cared and bought her a friendship ring - unfortunately, she got the wrong end of the stick when he gave it to her, believing that he was proposing. As she happily agreed to marry him, Brad started to panic, but later realised that she was the best thing to ever happen to him, and he couldn't tell her the truth and risk losing her, so he joined everyone else in celebrating the engagement and later got her a nicer ring and proposed again. However, everything was about to change when Brad met a mysterious girl riding her horse on the beach one day. The pair made an instant connection, and her life, travelling around the country and working with horses, made Brad feel slightly depressed about the prospect of settling down. Brad was in for a surprise when the girl turned out to be Lauren, the daughter of Brad's neighbour Lou Carpenter, and soon she too was living on Ramsay Street, but it wasn't until Brad and Beth's engagement party that they were finally introduced, and it became clear that the brief meeting on the beach had meant just as much to Lauren as it had to Brad. Lauren quickly tried to move on, dating Cameron, and with Beth and Lauren living in the same house, things got even more complicated when Beth wanted Brad to move in too. Brad confided in Stephen about his feelings for Lauren, realising that he had to try to find a way to avoid moving in and, after his constant excuses, Beth came to the conclusion that Brad and Lauren didn't like each other, though she couldn't work out why. After a horseriding trip, involving Brad, Beth, Lauren and Cameron, went badly wrong, as Brad was thrown from his horse and sprained his ankle, Beth decided to give up on trying to make them be friends, and Lauren realised that she needed to leave town if she was ever going to move on from her feelings for Brad. Lou, however, convinced Lauren to stay, feeling guilty that he'd neglected her for so many years and hopeful that they could be close again.

As Lauren started dating Cameron properly, Beth could hardly fail to notice the jealousy written all over Brad's face, and she confronted him about it. Brad admitted that he'd become confused about his feelings for Lauren, but that he had realised that he loved Beth, and the thing with Lauren was just a brief infatuation. After thinking things through, Beth was grateful for his honesty and Brad decided that focusing on their wedding and future life would be the perfect distraction from Lauren. However, the tension with Lauren failed to disappear, and one day when Brad was at the beach, Lauren happened to be riding by - they spoke about their feelings for each other and ended up having sex. A guilty Lauren quickly ended things with Cameron, who soon realised the truth and, unable to look Lauren, Brad or Beth in the eye, he quickly left town for good. This only ended up causing more problems for Brad, as Doug worked out what was going on, and Lauren found herself being hassled by Lou for an explanation over Cameron's sudden departure. With the wedding only days away, Lou found a pregnancy test, and Lauren was forced to admit that she had all the symptoms, but hadn't done the test yet. When Lou confided this in Doug, word soon got back to Brad, but it turned out to be a false alarm.

It wasn't until her wedding day that Beth realised what had been going on behind her back, and she called things off just as the ceremony was beginning. Beth decided to leave town for a while, and Brad and Lauren were left to face the gossips and deal with the situation. Lauren was diagnosed with a sexually-transmitted pelvic disease that left her with a slim chance of falling pregnant in the future and, after learning about it from Lou, Brad went to see her and told her that he'd realised that he still wanted to be with her. After thinking it over - and having learnt that Beth had sent back the engagement ring and things were definitely over in that relationship - Lauren agreed to start seeing Brad again, but told him that they needed to keep it just between them until things had died down a bit. When Beth returned to town, it wasn't long before Brad and Lauren's secret was revealed, and Beth decided to prove that she had moved on, by going on a very public date with Swampy! Although that date had only been a joke to wind up Brad, Beth continued to make a point of showing him she was moving on and enjoying life. Meanwhile, Brad and Lauren struggled to be a normal couple, with so many mixed opinions on their relationship and how they got together - with particular disapproval coming from Pam. But several weeks later, Brad and Beth were thrown back together in spectacular style when they became trapped in the Waterhole basement after a gas explosion destroyed the pub. Lauren was jealous as she saw Brad and Beth holding hands as they were taken away in an ambulance, and argued with Brad when he refused to leave the hospital until he knew Beth was OK.

Having started spending a lot of time with Lauren and the horses at the racecourse, Brad slowly started to develop a gambling addiction and with the Waterhole out of action, Brad had no job and even more time to place bets. As his family began to notice the problem, Brad's gambling only got worse and more secretive, but when Pam found out what he was up to, he decided that he'd have to move out of home, and went to stay with Lou and Lauren at number 24. When Brad then found his winning streak coming to an end, and started pawning things - including some diamond earrings that he'd bought for Lauren - he finally began to realise that he had a problem. And when Lauren learnt the truth about the earrings, and that Brad had been lying to her, her reaction made Brad begin to wonder if they really had a future together. Deciding that he had to get away from all of his problems for a while, he accepted a job on a cruise ship and left Erinsborough. In Brad's absence, Lauren grew close to jockey Connor Cleary, making things even more complicated when Brad suddenly returned home - with Lucy Robinson. Lucy and Brad had met up in Fiji, and Lucy was returning to town for Helen's surprise birthday party, so Brad decided to return and face up to his problems. His relationship with Lauren seemed beyond repair, whilst things for Beth had been no better, after an ill-advised relationship with separated Philip Martin. As everyone celebrated Helen's birthday, Brad and Beth sat down and talked things through, and both admitted that nobody they'd been with since had matched up to what they'd had with each other.

Confused about his feelings for Beth, Brad tried to move on by dating a new woman, Ally Slater, only to be shocked to learn that she was still at school. Beth, meanwhile, was moving on too, with Wayne Duncan, just as Brad had realised that he wanted her back. As tensions increased between Brad and Wayne, and both men proposed marriage to her, Beth realised that she'd had enough of them, and disappeared from Erinsborough, only telling housemate Mark Gottlieb where she was going. Having been offered a job in Perth, Beth was preparing to escape her love troubles and make a fresh start, but Brad convinced Mark to help him. Beth was shocked when Mark arrived at her hideout with Brad in tow, who made it clear to Beth that he'd meant every word he said; he wanted them to get back together and get married. He convinced her that other people had been to blame for all of their problems, and they could be happy if they were just left to their own devices. Beth agreed, returning to Erinsborough with Brad and explaining things to an understanding Wayne, she and Brad started to plan their wedding. With only a couple of weeks before she was due to leave for Perth, the wedding planning went into overdrive, but both Brad and Beth soon got sick of it, and decided to go and have a simple wedding in a registry office. Unfortunately, their families and friends back on Ramsay Street had also planned a surprise wedding, and they were dragged back to the street, after boarding the coach to Perth. Unable to reveal the truth, Brad and Beth went through a second wedding, before a final farewell.

The following year, Beth returned to Erinsborough, for the naming day of Gaby's son, Zac. There, she revealed that she was pregnant and, several months later, word came through that she'd given birth to a son named Ned. After everything they'd been through, Brad and Beth's marriage was not to last and they split up soon after, both remarrying. Brad became involved with Terese and together they had three children; twins Joshua and Imogen and, three years later, another daughter named Piper. It was career-minded Terese's job with Lassiters in Perth that brought Brad back to Ramsay Street, when she was offered the manager's position at the hotel in Erinsborough. Brad was delighted to return to his old stomping ground, sharing lots of his memories with his wife and kids, but he was in for a big surprise as he moved back to the street, when he found out that Lauren was back living there too, with her husband and children. Though Brad was now secure in his new marriage, and was honest with Terese, Lauren was a little more uncomfortable in talking about her past with husband Matt. Though she asked Terese not to say anything about it, until she'd had a chance, Brad soon put his foot in it, checking with Matt that there were no hard feelings about his past relationship with Lauren. The animosity between the two men then grew, and they were unable to hide their dislike for each other as the Willises hosted Ramsay Street's first Bite Club, in the which the houses on the street took it in turns to host a dinner party. But it didn't take long for them to patch up their differences, as they unexpected found themselves stuck with each other at the men's shed and got chatting about football.

Meanwhile, Brad was also responsible for coaching Joshua, who hoped that his abilities as a swimmer were going to take him to the 2014 Commonwealth Games. The father and son had been working on his strict eating and training schedule for a long time, but one day at the pool, another trainer, Don Cotter, got chatting to them, mentioning that Josh should try varying his schedule and adding in some middle-distance swimming, rather than just sprinting. Brad wasn't impressed with the idea, but it got Josh thinking, and he started to wonder if his dad's set ideas were holding him back. When Brad then found out that Josh had been speaking to Don and was considering signing a contract to train with him, he was disappointed. But after realising that, if he didn't give Josh this chance and he failed to make it to the Commonwealth Games, their father and son relationship might be permanently damaged. After speaking to Don, and giving the contract to Toadie to check, Brad agreed to let Josh sign it, though he did suggest that an escape clause should be added, just in case things didn't work out - something that Don refused to agree to. Over the weeks that followed, it became clear that Brad's misgivings about Don were correct, when he learnt that Don had moved Josh over to middle-distance swimming, to give his sprinter Hudson a better chance. When Josh then realised that Don had been lying to him about his times, and that he'd given performance enhancing drugs to Hudson, he confronted his coach, and told Brad that he needed to get out of the contract. At first, Don refused, but he later met up with Brad, having thought about things, and apologised, explaining that Hudson had become like a son to him over the years, and he'd been desperate to see him succeed. After learning that Don was quitting coaching, Brad agreed not to say anything, for the sake of Hudson's career. He then returned to training Josh part-time, and took a job as the manager of the local Dingoes Den gym.

Soon after, Hudson returned to Erinsborough, fresh from spending time with his parents in Sydney, and looking for a new coach. Despite the tension it was causing with Terese and Josh, Brad gave it some serious consideration, knowing that Hudson didn't deserve to suffer for the rest of his life for one silly mistake, and also aware that having two swimmers at the Commonwealth Games in 2014 would be an amazing boost to his career, and eventually agreed to take on Hudson. Though the rivalry between Hudson and Josh helped to improve both of their performances in the short term, Brad soon started to notice that Hudson was losing interest, skipping training sessions and not following his diet correctly. Around the same time, criminal Robbo Slade had died in hospital, a few days after being run down by a mystery driver. Though Hudson was one of the suspects, he'd been given an alibi by Don for his whereabouts that night. But as Hudson then told Brad that he'd decided to quit swimming completely, and find something new to do with his life, Brad went to Don for some advice, and Don then admitted that he'd been lying when he gave the alibi. Brad went to the police, and Hudson was then brought in for questioning again, and admitted that he'd been driving the car that had hit Robbo. Brad was not only left shocked that Hudson had been involved, but also as he learned that Imogen and Josh had also had a part to play in the events of that night, and had been covering things up for weeks.

The Willises and the Turners agreed that Josh and Amber should be banned from seeing each other, as punishment for all the recent lies - but the teenagers still managed to sneak around and finds ways to be together, so Brad and Lauren agreed to lift the ban and change the punishment to menial chores instead. Terese, however, wasn't pleased that the punishment had been changed without her knowledge, and the arguments between the two families were in danger of escalating, until Josh announced that he couldn't cope with everything, and so had decided to drop out of school. Brad and Terese reluctantly agreed to go along with his plan, but Terese made it clear that, if his situation changed at all, he would be straight back to school to complete his education. But no sooner had that matter been put to bed than another cropped up, with Matt and Lauren very concerned about Amber rushing into a sexual relationship with Josh, after all she'd been through with Robbo, and trying to find a way to encourage the teenagers to wait before having sex. Though Brad and Terese felt that things should happen naturally, and that they wouldn't be able to stop their kids sleeping together if they wanted to, Brad agreed to talk to Josh, who made it clear that he and Amber were going to wait. Unfortunately, Amber's idea of waiting for was months, whilst Josh thought she'd be ready in a couple of weeks, and when the kids realised the mix-up, it quickly spilled over into another family feud, with Matt storming over to the Willis house and accusing Josh of forcing Amber to do things she wasn't ready for. It was only when Josh made it clear that he loved Amber, and she overheard this, that the parents realised that they needed to step away and allow Josh and Amber to sort out their own problems.

Brad soon had something else to worry about when a man at the gym, Eric Edwards, injured his back after falling from a stepper machine. Brad had already put an 'out of order' sign on the faulty machine, and was confused when Eric said that the sign wasn't there. After he and Eric both filled out reports on what had happened, Brad was alarmed when he found out a few days later that Eric was planning to sue the gym, and Brad found that his job was on the line. Appalled by what had happened to her father, Imogen was quick to use her position as work experience girl at Toadie's law firm to find out more about Eric, and she'd soon uncovered evidence that he was faking his injury, having failed to sue a ski resort after hurting himself earlier in the year. Though Brad was annoyed with Imogen for abusing her position, her findings did end up getting Brad off the hook.

The following year, things were looking up for the Willises, as Terese had managed to negotiate a better deal at work, with higher pay and less hours, whilst Josh had qualified to go to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. However, disaster was just around the corner, when Josh went camping with Mason, Amber and Imogen, and ended up having a nasty fall while abseiling. At the hospital, Brad was furious with his son for taking part in such a risky activity, but put the blame squarely at Mason's door, as he'd been the one to hire the equipment and claimed that he had abseiling experience. Following surgery, Brad and Terese learnt that the damage to Josh's shoulder meant that he would be unlikely to be able to swim at a professional level again. At first, Brad lied to his son, hoping to keep him in a positive frame of mind, but it wasn't long before Josh found out the truth and blamed Mason, suggesting that he'd done it deliberately. A furious Brad then decided that the only way forward was to take legal action against Mason, causing all-out war between the Willis and Turner families. However, it wasn't long before Mason found proof that he wasn't to blame for what had happened, and that the abseiling company had been at fault and ultimately he decided to leave town for a fresh start, whilst the Willis family attempted to cope with the news that Josh would never swim professionally again.

The Willis family was then turned upside-down when Brad found out a shocking secret - Lauren had been pregnant with his child when she left Erinsborough all those years ago. Having believed that the baby had died at birth, Lauren had just found out that her mum, Kathy had actually had the child illegally adopted out. As the Willis and Turner families tried to decide what to do, it caused more problems for them all, with Terese feeling particularly threatened by this new-found bond that her husband shared with Lauren. Though Brad and Lauren decided that they wanted to search for their daughter, they knew that going to the police would mean that Kathy would probably end up serving jail time for her actions. They then considered hiring a private detective, but Bailey told them that he'd been using an online forum to try and find the girl, and had a match from someone named Lisa Tucker. Brad and Lauren arranged for her to come to Erinsborough, believing that they'd found their daughter, but their hopes were cruelly and quickly dashed when, at the hospital, they learnt that, given their respective blood groups, there was no change of them being related. Back to square one, Lauren declared that she couldn't cope with the emotional toll, and wanted to give up the search - and although Brad wanted to continue, he complied with Lauren's wishes.

When Doug came down from Darwin to visit the family for a few weeks, Josh quickly picked up on some odd behaviour from his grandfather. Hoping to help his grandson find a new direction in life, Doug had been doing some building work, with Josh as his apprentice, but Josh had noticed how forgetful Doug was becoming - though Brad refused to believe that anything was wrong, simply putting it down to Doug's age. However, when Doug then left the house one night and was found the next morning, wandering around with a cut on his head and talking about going to meet Cody - who'd died in 1996 - he was taken to hospital, where Karl raised the subject of Alzheimer's Disease. After some more tests showed that this was the likely cause of Doug's recent behaviour, the family tried to digest the news, and Brad arranged for his mum to fly down and be with them. Pam, however, wasn't convinced, claiming that Doug had actually been having an affair behind her back, and was using this illness to cover up the truth. She explained that he'd dropped the name Jill Weir into a recent conversation and had been disappearing at all hours of the day and night lately, with no explanation. However, after speaking to Karl and hearing about the tests that had been done, she realised that she'd been too harsh on him, feeling terrible for not realising what was really going on. Though Brad and Terese were keen for his parents to move in with them, Doug and Pam had other ideas, announcing that they were going to make the most of life from now on, and were going travelling. As they left, Doug made a speech about remembering the important things in life - and this inspired Brad to resume the search for his daughter. Knowing that Lauren wasn't ready to try again, and that Terese wouldn't be happy either, he started holding yoga classes at the lake, making some extra money, which he used to hire private investigator Tracey Wong.

When Tracey found a strong lead in South Australia, Brad prepared to follow it on his own, but was persuaded to tell Lauren, and the pair went to Adelaide together. After a difficult day, they went back to their hotel and during an emotional moment in the night, they ended up sharing a kiss. Feeling terrible, Lauren returned home to Erinsborough, whilst Brad continued on his search, finding the house that was owned by Mary Smith, the woman he believed had adopted his daughter. There, he met Ethan, Mary's son, who after hearing Brad's story, explained that he was an only child and that Brad had the wrong Smiths. However, once Brad had gone, Ethan contacted his adoptive sister Paige and told her that her biological parents were looking for her. Paige then decided that she would go to Erinsborough, get to know Brad and Lauren, and figure out whether she wanted them to be a part of her life.

Unaware that his daughter was now living next-door to him, Brad found that his trip to Adelaide had other consequences, when his constant time off work, along with his yoga classes on the side, got him sacked from his job at the gym. With few other options, Brad was forced to return to teaching, a job he'd never really been happy with, and had only ever entered the line of work because Terese had been pregnant and had pressured him to find a career. Having originally left teaching to become a full-time coach to Josh, Brad was unhappy to find himself working at Erinsborough High, where, to make matters worse, Imogen and Josh were both students. He struggled to walk the line between father and teacher, and things reached a head when Josh decided that he no longer wanted to be at school and so he quit. Imogen, too, was struggling to cope with all the change in the family and started rebelling, ending up losing her school captaincy after wagging. With the Willis family collapsing in on itself, there was another shock to come when Paige's true identity was revealed. Though Brad and Lauren both immediately accepted her, and Josh didn't take much persuading, Imogen and particularly Terese were very wary, realising that she'd been lying to them all for months and was not to be trusted. Brad was shocked as Terese did her best to prove that Paige was trouble, managing to uncover evidence that Paige had been the one who'd trashed Harold's Store the previous month, which in turn revealed further minor brushes with the police - and although Brad just wanted everyone to be one big happy family, it looked like it was going to be a lot more difficult to persuade Terese to give Paige a chance.

Trivia Notes
• Prior to the arrival of the Willis family, Benjamin Mitchell briefly appeared as Brad Willis in two episodes in 1989. Scott Michaelson took over the role when Brad was added to the regular cast in 1991, and continued in the role until the end of 1993. In 2013, the character returned to the cast again, and the role was taken over by Kip Gamblin

Tenure
1082, 1087, 1501-2068, 6646-