First Appearance: Episode 2 (1982)

Last Appearance: Episode 972 (1987)

Known Family: Father - Gordon Hamilton; Mother - Nancy Hamilton; Stepmother (1) - Patricia Hamilton; Stepmother (2) - Barbara Armstrong; Stepmother (3) - Beryl Palmer; Stepsister - Angela Hamilton; Stepbrother - John Palmer; Wife (1) - Amanda Morrell (d. 1986); Wife (2) - Karen Fox (d. 1985); Wife (3) - Mary Reynolds (annulled); Wife (4) - Susan Palmer (d. 1987)

Key Relationships:
Fling with Jacqui Ingleton; Romance with Jill O'Donnel, leading to aborted marriage; Marriage to Amanda Morrell (divorced 1984); Marriage to Karen Fox (d. 1985); Romance with and marriage to Mary Reynolds (annulled after it emerges that Mary is Wayne's sister); Love triangle with Glen Young over Susan Palmer: Wayne 'wins' and marries her. Susan dies at Wayne's hands in 1987.

Key Storylines:
As one of the characters who appeared in Sons and Daughters from the very beginning to the very end, Wayne not only had numerous storylines, he probably had more storylines than any other character in the entire series. To go into them all here would fill pages, so here is a just a taster of Wayne at his worst!:

Wayne is the son of Gordon Hamilton and his first wife, Nancy, who died while she was giving birth to her son in about 1957. When Gordon felt that he couldn't give a proper home to his son, he sent Wayne to live with his retired parents. When Wayne was five, Gordon decided to look for a live-in nanny for him, and this turned out to be Patricia Dunne. Wayne was later sent to boarding school. Wayne tries hard to please his father, but he doesn't find it easy.

In 1982, Wayne is manager of the Hamilton Stud - and is embezzling funds from his father. He uses money from a trust fund to buy the country property, Woombai. He tells everyone that he wants to get the rundown place up-and-running again, but in reality intends to knock the place down, because he believes there are valuable minerals underneath. When Gordon finds out about the plans, he's livid and throws Wayne out of the house. A furious Wayne roars away in his car, but doesn't concentrate on the road and ends up crashing. He damages his back and has to spend time recuperating. He becomes closer to Jill Taylor as she acts as nurse to him. He and Jill move to Woombai, where Wayne decides to build an airstrip as part of the property's redevelopment. Unfortunately, he goes ahead with bulldozing some land, despite the fact that part-owner Fiona Thompson refuses to give her permission because her dead baby's grave is within the ground - and when Fiona finds out that Wayne has ignored her wishes, she vows to sue the Hamiltons for everything they've got. Jill dumps Wayne in disgust at the way he acted - and when Wayne then learns by accident that Jill used to be a prostitute, he's relieved that he no longer has anything to do with the girl.

Wayne talks himself into a job with Ramberg Industries, but doesn't perform very well and is demoted. He does, however, discover information that could solve some problems with the Queensland branch of the company. When Gordon - the new Ramberg MD - refuses to listen, though, and the Queensland branch goes under, Wayne gloats about how he could have helped. A furious Gordon just gives him the sack - causing Wayne to decide to escape his father and move down to Melbourne, where he takes up residence with his stepmother, Patricia, at a mansion she's inherited at Toorak. He meets nurse Susan Palmer and becomes impressed at the dedication she displays while looking after the depressed Patricia. He and Susan become closer, but Wayne misreads things and when he tries to kiss Susan she accuses him of spoiling things. She subsequently moves away from Melbourne to be with her jailbird husband, Bill.

At the start of 1983, Wayne decides he wants Jill back - despite her past. However, he discovers that she's set to marry a man called Brian O'Donnel - an illegal immigrant from Ireland. He devises a plan: he hires a woman called Beth Newman to pretend to be Jill's long-lost mother, the aim being that Beth will convince Jill what a nice guy Wayne is really. The plan works and Jill tells Wayne that he's a good friend. Wayne still has Brian to deal with, though - so he tries blackmailing Brian and ringing the Immigration authorities. Brian goes on the run, leaving Wayne to comfort Jill. Sadly, Jill is then raped by the local larrikin at Woombai, Terry Hansen. Wayne does some investigating and discovers that Terry is really Fiona Thompson's son - the baby she thought had died at three days old. Deciding to use this knowledge for his own ends, Wayne concocts a plan to reveal to Fiona that her baby is still alive, but he then sends her to Perth to look for him. Fiona takes the bait and Wayne is again left alone with Jill. Jill is shocked when she receives news that Brian has been killed in a car crash. Wayne escorts her to the funeral - and then proposes! Jill says 'yes'! The marriage goes ahead, but to everyone's shock Brian turns up at the ceremony! It transpires that his belongings had been stolen and it was the thief who was killed. Jill tells Wayne that it's Brian she loves, leaving Wayne furious. He almost commits suicide, but is talked out of it by Dee Morrell.

Dee then employs Wayne to work for her - and she also gives him a proposition: he's to marry her granddaughter, Amanda, to give her a grandson, in return for a large share of her fortune. Neither Wayne nor Amanda is keen - but a combination of drink and the financial incentives lead to them both agreeing to the plan. Dee dies just a few days later, and Wayne whisks Amanda off quickly to the registry office before anyone else finds out about the death: the only way Wayne will get his hands on Dee's money is if Amanda gives birth to a son within a year of Dee dying. Amanda is reluctant to sleep with Wayne, so he starts working on the other two main beneficiaries of Dee's will: Beryl Palmer and Margaret Dunne. Margaret refuses to work with him, though, and Beryl announces that she's giving most of her share to charity.

Come 1984, Wayne and Amanda's marriage is in trouble - but Amanda then discovers that she's pregnant! The two of them agree to work harder at their relationship. Sadly, Amanda suffers a miscarriage. After a while, they agree to try for another child - but Wayne then learns unexpectedly that Amanda is on the contraceptive pill. He's furious, and takes revenge on Amanda by smashing up Andy Green's mobile DJ equipment - Amanda having just gone into business with Andy. Wayne calms down and later tells Amanda again that he loves her. Amanda, however, retorts that she's had enough. A drunk Wayne later turns up and tells Amanda that she's his wife and she owes him a kid. He then rapes her...

Events take another serious turn after Gordon suffers a heart attack: Wayne and Amanda pretend to be back together for Gordon's sake, so that they don't cause him any worry. However, Amanda starts blackmailing Wayne, trying to force him to buy her a new car to stop her revealing the truth. An angry Wayne gets round the blackmail by deciding to tell his father the truth and introducing a new woman in his life: Liz Smith - who Wayne has secretly employed from an escort agency.

His involvement with Liz leads to Wayne becoming involved with the escort agency - and putting himself up for hire as an escort. He is hired by a businesswoman named Karen Fox - and it doesn't take long for she and Wayne to fall for each other. Despite this, Wayne starts seeing teenager Katie O'Brien behind Karen's back - but it doesn't take long for the truth to emerge, and Karen is furious. She ends up blackmailing Wayne into dumping Katie.

In early-1985, Karen and Wayne marry, after Karen convinces Wayne that he needs her to look after him: Wayne believes he has killed a guy called Bob Mitchell, and Karen helps him hold it together after his guilt almost overwhelms him. When Wayne learns a few weeks later that Mitch isn't dead and that Karen has been stringing him along, he's furious and tries to strangle his wife. She survives, but is found dead a few days later. It turns out that it's Liz Smith who killed her accidentally. Wayne decides to get away from things for a while.

Upon his return to Sydney, Wayne is astonished when people start accusing him of behaving badly towards his family. He's even more shocked when he heads to the Morrell apartment and Caroline Morrell shoots him! He survives, but the truth emerges that a guy named Gary Evans - who looked absolutely identical to Wayne - had taken his place while Wayne was away and had tried to rip everyone off.

Soon after Wayne's return to Dural, a young woman, Julie Webb, follows him. Wayne reveals to everyone that she's his fiancée, having met her while she was away. Sadly, when Julie makes it clear that she doesn't want to rely on Wayne's money and gets herself a job in a local pub, tensions arise in the relationship. The situation worsens when Julie develops a friendship with a guy named Neil Duffy: Wayne's jealous streak gets the better of him and he accuses Julie and Neil of being on together. A shocked Julie realises she's made a mistake with Wayne and she moves away. It doesn't take long before Wayne then becomes involved with shy teenager, Mary Reynolds. They fall in love quickly and Wayne proposes marriage. The wedding goes ahead - but before it's even consummated, it's revealed that Mary is really Wayne's half-sister: a daughter of Gordon and Patricia Hamilton that Gordon knew nothing about. The marriage is annulled and Mary moves away.

1986 sees Wayne involved in a bitter battle with Alison Carr - or Patricia Hamilton after plastic surgery: business rivalries find the two at each other's throats constantly. Wayne beats Alison to the punch in buying an old mansion. He plans to have it pulled down and redeveloped - but when Fiona Thompson helps in a campaign to save the place, Wayne gives in and agrees that she and the existing tenants in the place - which is used as a boarding house - can stay. Meanwhile, Susan Palmer comes back into Wayne's life after her husband, Bill, tells her he wants a divorce. Wayne vows that that he's going to use his second chance to make sure he hangs onto her. From that point on, a vicious love triangle develops between Wayne, Susan and handyman Glen Young, for whom Susan quite clearly develops feelings. Wayne uses all his vicious cunning to try and get rid of Glen, including framing him to make it look like he's abandoned a woman who had a baby to him; and arranging for him to be beaten up. Susan ends up turning to Wayne after she believes his lies - and Wayne uses Susan's emotional state to get her to agree to marry him.

The wedding goes ahead, despite attempts by Susan's father, David, to stop it. A furious Wayne takes revenge on David by wiping him out, leaving him broke. David tells Susan what's happened, and she warns Wayne that she'd leave him if she ever caught him trying to hurt her father. Wayne starts receiving death threats, although he has no idea who they're from. A happy Susan announces shortly after the wedding that she's pregnant - and Wayne is ecstatic. However, his happiness is short-lived as he then learns that his grandfather died of Huntington's disease and that it won't be long before it kills him, too - and the gene could also be passed-on if Susan gives birth to a son. A stunned Wayne tells Susan that he thinks it would be better if their baby wasn't born. Susan, however, just retorts that she either has the baby or she'll leave their marriage. She turns to Glen for comfort - and ends up spending some time with him at his parents' vacant cabin in the country. A furious Wayne tracks them down there and discovers them kissing. He can't bring himself to confront them, though. Back in Sydney, Wayne demands from a shocked Susan to know how he can be sure her baby is really his. He learns just a few days later that Susan's car has been found abandoned by the sea and that she has apparently walked into the water and killed herself.

At the same time, Wayne meets nine-year-old Tick McCarthy - who tells Wayne that he's his father! Wayne knows he was involved with a woman called Moya Brinkley while he was just a teenager, and that it's conceivable that Tick is his son. He decides to get to know the boy and takes him out to an island for a day trip. To his shock, however, the captain of their boat sails off, stranding them there. Tick then cuts himself seriously on some glass and Wayne has to swim for help - not realising that there's a shark chasing through the water after him. It takes Wayne's arch enemy, Glen, to rescue him and swim to shore to seek help for Tick.

Sadly, Wayne learns at the beginning of 1987 that Tick isn't really his son and that Alison used the boy to string him along. A furious Wayne vows that Alison will soon be in the gutter where she belongs - where he'll step on her face and push her down even further. To his astonishment, Wayne learns that Susan is still alive and hiding-out in Melbourne. He's even more surprised when Susan turns up back in Sydney, a TV News crew in tow, and engages in a warm reunion with her husband. When the crew has gone, however, she warns Wayne coldly that things are going to be different this time. It doesn't take long for the arguments to resume, however, and a tragic accident ensues: Wayne ends up knocking Susan down with his car. She's rushed to hospital, and although the baby is initially found to be OK, the stress of recent events gets to Susan and she suffers a miscarriage.

Wayne gets drunk while sitting by the pool at Dural and can only just make out the silhouette of someone who comes to see him - and shoot him. He's rushed to hospital, where he's operated upon. He survives, but can't recall who fired the weapon. He eventually points the finger at Beryl, even though he concludes really that it was Susan who was behind the attack: he decides Susan would suffer more from seeing her mother behind bars than she would if it was her. When he's released from hospital, he locates the gun Susan used and snarls that the only person she thinks about now is him. Sadly, a few days later, Susan's car is found abandoned by the sea again, and this time there is no sign of her body. Wayne has to conclude that she really has killed herself. He almost commits suicide himself - but the return of Tick cheers him up. He also vows once and for all to destroy Alison.

An attractive new neighbour, 18-year-old Sarah Hudson, grabs Wayne's interest, and they begin to spend time together. Sarah tries to throw herself at Wayne, but he's wary after all his bad experiences with women. Meanwhile, he puts his plan into action to take everything and everyone away from Alison, leaving her with no money and no friends. She ends up having to move into a seedy motel. Just to annoy her, he asks Sarah to marry him - and she says 'yes'! Left with almost nothing, Alison calls Wayne and asks to see him in a nearby park. Wayne goes along and is astonished when Alison points out Susan driving past. He pretends not to care, though, and leaves Alison to her misery. Once he arrives back at Dural, however, he does his best to try to track down his wife - but without success. It's only the next day, after Charlie Bartlett's wedding to Todd Buckley, that he sees Susan creeping through the trees in the grounds of Charlie's house. He runs after her, leaving Sarah in tears after snapping at her that she's just a kid and he never loved her. He catches up with Susan and drags her into Dural, where he snarls that she's never going to leave him again. A short time later, tragedy strikes and Susan is left lying dead on the lounge room floor, having apparently been strangled. Wayne is standing over her, sobbing that he didn't mean it. Realising that he's finally gone too far, he turns to the 'phone and makes a call. He asks for the police...