Nathan Roberts

Nathan Roberts is one of Irene Roberts's sons. A bad boy who was no stranger to the inside of a prison cell, there was a long gap of 8 years between his two stints on the show. In 1993-1994 he was played by David Dixon. In 2002 Craig Ball took over the role.

Backstory[]

Nathan was born in May 1972 and was the eldest child of Murdoch (Mud) and Irene Roberts. Mud was a sleazy conman and Irene was an alcoholic, so he didn't have the best role models as parents. Unlike his younger siblings Finlay and Damian, Nathan embarked on a life of crime. He was sent to prison but was released in October 1993.

1993-1994[]

Nathan came to visit Irene, Fin and Damian who had all relocated to Summer Bay. Irene was delighted to see her wayward son again and was all too willing to accept his assurances that he had decided to go straight. This couldn't be further from the truth. Almost immediately he stole a camera and then took money from his flatmate Adam Cameron. He vied with Tug O'Neale for a job as a janitor at Summer Bay High School and got the job. There, he managed to goad teacher Luke Cunningham into leaving his job.

That wasn't the only trouble Nathan caused. Although Finlay didn't want anything to do with him, Damian was keen to impress his big brother. Damian became an unlikely rebel and started to ape Nathan's bad boy ways, much to the annoyance of his foster parents Pippa and Michael Ross. Nathan began to date Sarah Thompson, much to the annoyance of Alf Stewart who she was staying with. Inevitably, everything soured. Sarah and Damian came to see that he was a bit of a douchebag. The final straw for Nathan came in January 1994, when he stole the school fees for the new term. He hid the money down the back of his sofa where it was later found. Irene and Sarah found several holes in his alibi. Disappointed, Irene had to accept that her son wasn't the reformed character she'd blindly assumed he was. He was jailed but surprisingly, his story was to take a twist offscreen.

In 1995, the body of his estranged father Mud was found in the bush. At first it was assumed that he had died in the recent bush fire but that wasn't the case. He had been murdered. The culprit was later revealed to be Nathan's former prison cellmate Dodge. Nathan had learned of Mud's sex pest antics and paid Dodge to do the deed.

2002[]

In 2002 Nathan made a surprise return to the Bay. He had been released from prison again but this time had gone to stay with Finlay at first. That didn't work out so Irene agreed to let him come stay in the Beach House. He got off to a bad start with his new housemates. Nick Smith had been promised he would get his brother Will's old bedroom but that changed when Nathan arrived. Then Nathan ate Nick's tin of baked beans. To defuse the situation Irene took him with her into town. Here he overheard Colleen Smart bitching about him behind his back. Nathan lost his temper.

Irene got Nathan a job working in the diner. Unfortunately for him, Colleen told her friends that Nathan was an ex-crim and they stopped going there. With the takings down, Leah was left with no choice but to let Nathan go. He began to drink and became increasingly frustrated. After getting his final wages from Leah, he angrily stole Alf Stewart's ute. While he was driving he came across a crashed bus. It had been hired by the local school for an excursion and it was filled with several injured students and a badly concussed Donald Fisher. Nathan raised the alarm and helped free the occupants who had been trapped inside. He was injured when the bus blew up and was hospitalised. Unexpectedly he had become a hero. In hospital he became friends with an Irish nurse called Grace O'Connor and it evolved into a romance.

Now a changed man, Nathan got a job working as a deckhand on Alf’s boat The Blaxland. He went up in a plane as part of his 30th birthday celebrations. When Grace was posted to a new position in Alice Springs, Nathan decided to leave with her. In 2016, Irene mentioned Nathan and said he had married a “lovely Irish girl”. Unless he was in the habit of romancing lovely Irish girls, it can be assumed that he married Grace.

Memorable info[]

Birthday: 1972

Full Name: Nathaniel Roberts

David Dixon, who played Nathan in 1993-94, was better known as a pop singer at the time. His former band Indecent Obsession had achieved some success in Australia and abroad. Now a solo artist, he had released a solo single and had just finished playing Joseph in an Australian production of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.