List of Home and Away characters introduced in 2003

The year saw the introduction of The Hunters, a new family consisting of Scott (Kip Gamblin), his mother Beth (Clarissa House) and his younger siblings Kit (Amy Mizzi) and Robbie (Jason Smith), who all debuted in the respective months of January, April and November.

[1] Linda Barnier of the Newcastle Herald described Scott as a "beefcake" and opined that his debut on his horse Jacko was a "very Man from Snowy River moment".

[2] Beth Hunter (née Walters, previously Sutherland), played by Clarissa House, made her first on-screen appearance on 17 April 2003 and departed on 30 January 2007.

Sacha Molitorisz of The Sydney Morning Herald said that the episode featuring Beth and Rhys' wedding was better suited to "die hard fans".

[5] Tasha Andrews, played by Isabel Lucas, made her first screen appearance in the episode broadcast on 31 July 2003 and departed the series on 10 October 2006.

[8] In an interview with The Sunday Times, Catholic Priest Toby Sherring spoke out against the storyline where Mumma Rose convinces Tasha to join the Believers.

He added: "Because religion in TV shows such as Home and Away is portrayed in this way, the media version is firstly more believable and secondly much more intriguing, although ultimately unappealing.

[10] Viv was introduced as part of Dani Sutherland's (Tammin Sursok) storyline involving her imprisonment for the attempted murder of Kane Phillips (Sam Atwell).

She told Scott Ellis about her character, "She's a legal person who's been wrongfully incarcerated, She was a magistrate in the children's court who uncovered in her line of work a pedophile ring - stop me if you heard this before - consisting of judges, lawyers and politicians.

Dani takes her up on the offer but the manuscript is destroyed in a kiosk fire caused by Ric Dalby (Mark Furze) and Wazza Stevens (Israel Cannan).

It transpires that Viv was in a relationship with Morag's brother, Alf Stewart (Ray Meagher) when they were teenagers and their families disapproved.

Morag arranges for Viv to be let out on Day release, where she spends her final hours with Alf and reveals that she had become pregnant with his child and subsequently adopted the baby out to a childless couple, Marion and Marianne Dalby who lived in Yabbie Creek.