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Neighbourhood > Character Profiles > Katie Landers Sally Jensen

The second child of Bob and Annette Landers, Katie Landers grew up a shy and quiet little girl after all the problems she encountered at home from her alcoholic ex-soldier father, Bob, who gave his family a hard time. The problems became so much for Katie and her older brother, Todd, that when they accompanied family friend Hilary Robinson to Erinsborough for the wedding of their aunt Beverly Marshall to Hilary's cousin Jim, they felt so happy there that they pleaded with their aunt to let them stay. Jim and Beverly forfeited their honeymoon and agreed to let Todd and Katie stay, in the hope that some time alone would help Annette and Bob sort out their marital problems.

Katie's insecurity lapsed considerably once she was welcomed into the stable family environment at the Robinson house, and soon made lots of friends in Ramsay Street - especially with Toby Mangel from No. 32. Katie and Toby got up to various kinds of mischief together, including turning the Ramsay family's swimming pool purple on one occasion. Katie also often caused mischief around the neighbourhood with Todd, too, who she idolised. They incurred the wrath of old Dan Ramsay together when they changed the Ramsay Street sign to read 'Robinson Street' in the midst of another resurrection of the generations old Ramsay/Robinson feud.

Katie was also particularly close to Jim's mother-in-law, Helen Daniels, who also lived at the Robinson house, and Katie called her 'Gran'. Shortly after Helen came into a substantial amount of money, she received blackmail letters demanding $20,000 and threats to the safety of her family. Katie and Toby turned super sleuths to try and track the blackmailer down, and Katie was stunned when she found out that the culprit was in fact her father, Bob. When this was revealed to the Robinsons, they called the police, who arrested Bob, but Jim agreed to bail Bob out for the sake of Katie and Todd, and let him stay at No. 26 for a time to make amends with his kids. Todd managed to forgive his father, but Katie resented him for what he had done to Helen, particularly after everything Helen and the rest of the Robinson family had done for her and Todd. Bob eventually made secret plans to take off, and pleaded with Todd and Katie to go with him and start afresh. Katie refused to accompany Bob, but Todd decided to go with him, leaving Katie behind. But Katie revealed Bob's plans to the Robinsons in the nick of time, and after Beverly and Jim tracked Bob and Todd down at the bus station, they persuaded Todd to return home with them and Bob was arrested for skipping bail.

Katie was thrilled when she got a pet rabbit, who she named Rupert. But after Rupert went missing, Katie was devastated, and was shocked that evening when she had dinner with Toby and his family at the Mangel house and Toby's father, Joe, served up rabbit stew. Convinced that the stew had been Rupert, Katie forced Joe to bury the stew in the back garden. But Henry Ramsay made Katie a very happy girl when he found Rupert in his garden while he was cutting the grass.

After Annette felt ready to take Todd and Katie back, the kids were torn between wanting to return to Adelaide to be with their mother again, and staying in Erinsborough with their new family and friends. Katie eventually decided to go back to Adelaide, but Todd opted to stay on in Erinsborough because he had recently started seeing Melissa Jarrett, and was keen on staying on at the same high school. Katie was initially angry with Todd for not wanting to go home with her to their mum, but after Todd assured Katie that she and Annette were the most important people in his life, and promised to visit them in Adelaide as often as possible, Katie felt better about leaving him behind. Katie was also distressed to be saying goodbye to Toby, and when she went to say her goodbyes to him, she decided to give Rupert to Toby to remember her by. Toby was thrilled by the gesture, and Katie was ecstatic when he kissed her on the cheek before she left.

Biography by Moe