Lois Crawford

Lois Crawford was a recurring character in 1991. She was the cold, conniving, power-hungry headmistress who temporarily replaced Donald Fisher as principal of Summer Bay High School. She was played by Tina Bursill.

1991[]

Summer Bay High School was upgraded following its merger with Mangrove River High. This meant that Donald Fisher was no longer qualified to be the headmaster of the school . He was replaced as head, pending an appeal. Lois Crawford was appointed as head of the school in his place and she wasted no time in stamping her authority on the place. Believing that the school was badly run and in need of drastic changes, she immediately started making reforms. Donald was demoted to the position of Deputy Headmaster. Crawford enjoyed demeaning and undermining him and missed no opportunities to put him down. When she told Donald that she was going to apply for the permanent head teacher's job and would very likely get it, Donald decided to retire at the end of term.

Lois had little time for students who were badly behaved or weren't sufficiently interested in their studies. She took a particular dislike to Blake Dean whose attitude she disliked. She also noticed that Haydn Ross's once outstanding school grades had deteriorated since his move to Summer Bay. She decided that Blake's friendship with Blake was at the root of this and she set about separating the two. Her meddling led to a temporary rift between Michael Ross and Alf Stewart. More significantly, it ruined the relationship between Michael and Haydn. Haydn decided to leave Summer Bay for good and moved back to live with his mother in the city.

Crawford's new school regime was quite unpopular amongst the locals. Pippa Ross and other concerned parents organised a meeting in the Surf Club. During this meeting, concerns were raised about Crawford's methods. The parents rallied against Crawford at a heated meeting and led to Donald's retirement being reversed. However, she continued in her role as head of the school and couldn't care less what the locals thought of her.

Crawford finally came undone when she lied to try and stop Finlay Roberts from enrolling in the school. When Finlay called her out in front of the Summer Bay High students, Lois vowed that she was going to continue to lie for as long as it took to keep Finlay out of every school in the state. She threatened Finlay and stated that she was the wrong person to make an enemy of. When her lie was exposed, she was given the option of resigning before she was fired. Crawford resigned and was transferred to another high school.

Appearances[]

1991