Gina Austin (2009-)
Sonia Todd
Episodes: 4776 - 4778, 4818, 4831-4845, 4928-4929, 4946-present
Marital Status: Jeremy Austin (separated)
Children: Hugo, Xavier and Brendan Austin
Siblings: Tony Holden
Tony Holden's sister, Gina, arrived in the Bay to attend the funeral of her nephew, Jack. Gina is the mother of Xavier, Hugo and Brendan and has brought them up on her own after separating from their father many years ago.
Gina could see how distraught Tony was following Jack's death and wanted to be ther to support her brother. They reminisced about how Jack and Hugo used to pretend to be Batman and Superman when they were children and she told Tony that he should be proud for bringing up two wonderful boys. However, she was soon distracted by the friction with her son Xavier. Xavier resented Gina for making him break up with his girlfriend, Freya, and having to take on so much responsibility looking after his older brother Brendan, who has learning difficulties. Gina told Xavier that she was proud of him and Hugo but Gina notably didn't say she was proud of Brendan too.
At Jack's funeral, Gina's eldest son, Hugo, turned up from overseas. She was over the moon to see him but Xavier wasn't as he felt Hugo had abandoned the family when he left. Gina was upset when the tension between the two brothers escalated but she did her best to reconcile them. Gina was worried about Freya's influence on Xavier and she agreed to Hugo's idea about Xavier and him staying in the Bay permanently. She decided that she would be fine looking after Brendan on her own back at home.
Gina returned to the bay a few months later to bring Brendan to visit his brothers. Gina looked very pleased that Brendan was happy again as he had missed Xavier. Gina was also pleased to see her brother, Tony, and that his and Rachel's wedding was back on track. Gina was worried about Brendan meeting Rachel and Martha but her fears were allayed when he took to them both straight away.
However, when the time came to leave, Brendan didn't want to go and ended up struggling with Gina. This resulted in Brendan pushing Gina to the floor, breaking her ankle. When she returned from the hospital, Gina insisted she would be OK looking after Brendan as she was getting a friend to come and stay. Hugo wanted Brendan to stay in the Bay with him and Xavier but Gina wasn't keen. However, Hugo eventually talked her into it, despite Gina and Xavier's reluctance.
She returned a third time for Tony's wedding and discovered that Brendan had been behind the accident that injured Roman and that Xavier had been covering for him. She took Brendan to the city until the charges were dropped. After a lunch with Tony and Rachel she came home to find Hugo distraught and Brendan missing. He came home soon after, covered in blood and insisting that Hugo had hurt him. Gine initially didn't believe Hugo that it was an accident but he eventually got through to her and she returned to the city with Brendan, leaving her sons on good terms finally.
Gina returned to Summer Bay to help celebrate Brendan's 21st birthday. She was disconcerted when Ted, a man she had been seeing on a casual basis after meeting him at a teacher refresher course, followed her to the town and told the family that he'd invited Gina to come away with him for a month. She was reluctant to leave Brendan but Martha and Hugo offered to look after him and Gina left on her trip. However, she returned after only a short while, revealing Ted had wanted her to put Brendan in a home. She was therefore not in the mood for the news that Brendan had befriended a Down's Syndrome sufferer, Ruby Leeds, and wanted to live in a community house with her. She refused to consider the idea, saying she knew what was best for Brendan, but when he saved Xavier from drowning, and she also saw that he was capable of doing other simple jobs like making phone calls on his own, she realised he was more independent than she thought and gave her consent.
Gina was somewhat at a loss without Brendan and Tony lined her up an interview as a science teacher at Summer Bay High. She admitted to Martin Bartlett that she had been out of teaching for a long time and had struggled with a principal's post, saying when students were involved she felt she needed to be honest. The attitude impressed Martin and he offered her the post of acting principal. She quickly told Xavier and Ruby off for arriving late and told Xavier he needed to set an example, so wasn't happy when she was promptly dragged down the police station when Robert Robertson interviewed him about Charlie's whereabouts the night Grant Bledcoe was killed. When Robert continued to question Xavier, Gina realised he had lied about the alibi and persuaded him to tell the truth. She encouraged Xavier to break up with Ruby but was equally disapproving when she learned he had lied to her about having amnesia.
On one of her first days at her new job, Gina was surprised to meet John Palmer, who had come to the school to give a talk about the surf club. Despite her family having a chequered history with him, they got on well and began socialising, even after his and Martha's election battle almost turned nasty. She agreed to have dinner with him after they talked about funding for the school but was put out when he fired Romeo for failing to turn up for a lesson, telling him he should have given him a warning first. John managed to win her round and she let him take her out for a surfing lesson. Xavier made it clear he wasn't happy about the relationship and after learning of another argument between the pair, she invited John round to dinner. After the evening descended into chaos when Xavier's two "girlfriends" Ali and Rosie both turned up, Gina tried to shock him by saying John was going to stay the night and was relieved when John realised she wasn't serious. Xavier told her he was worried John would hurt her like his dad did and eventually agreed to give the relationship a go after Gina convinced him she knew what she was doing.
Gina was shocked when Suzy Sudiro turned up and claimed to be Hugo's wife but ultimately gave him the benefit of the doubt and encouraged him to do whatever he could to make things up with Martha. When Miles was accused of assaulting Riley Radcliffe, Gina reluctantly suspended him from work but did arrange for him to attend the school formal in an unofficial capacity. Even after Miles was cleared of charges, she realised he was still in a bad place emotionally and instructed him to take stress leave. She was somewhat dumbfounded when Hugo abruptly ended his relationship with Martha and decided to leave town but still wished him well. The next morning, she received the news that not only had Hugo been involved in people smuggling but that he had been killed by one of his associates. She was disgusted with his actions, feeling he wasn't worth grieving for and refusing to even attend his funeral. She later attempted to tell Brendan about what had happened but in the end it was Xavier he turned to her for comfort. She refused to discuss Hugo with Martha or Xavier when they tried to get her to let go of her anger towards him.
When Mink arrived at the house to see Xavier, Gina wasn't happy when Mink rejected her attempts at polite conversation and implied she had been in jail and tried to dissuade Xavier from spending time with her. When Mink realised what she was doing, she confronted her at the house and pointed out Gina knew nothing about her but Gina was unmoved by her tirade. She reminded Romeo of his previous desire to return to school, telling him it was still open to enrollments. When she noticed Mink trying to talk him out of it, she confronted her, suggesting she go back to school as well, but Mink retorted that ex-criminals don't go to school, despite Gina trying to convince her to leave her past behind. When Xavier told her Mink had taken the blame for her mum, Gina tried to talk to her about it but Mink was horrified that she knew. She later spoke to her at the house, telling her that she hardened herself when her husband left her and Mink did the same when she went to jail but it was time to let it go and be herself again. Mink broke down in tears and Gina comforted her. After she had stayed for dinner with the family, she again rejected Gina's suggestion to return to school but hugged her goodbye and thanked her for what she'd done for her.
Although Gina and John had drifted apart over recent events, she still tried to make peace between him and Tony. After she learned about John saving Hazem during the riot and he apologised for avoiding her in the aftermath of Hugo's death, they began spending time together again, having a night-time picnic near the beach. She tried to get John to get on better with Tony but instead they had an argument which ended with Tony selling his share of the gym. Gina reluctantly agreed to employ him at the school instead but they soon clashed over his attempts to set up boxing classes. She and John went out on a date after his divorce was finalised and ended up sleeping together, only for Xavier to walk in on them half-dressed. Although Tony was happy for her when she told him about it, Xavier tried to warn John off. Gina marched him to the surf club and ordered him to apologise but he refused and stormed off. Worried about Xavier going off the rails and having talked things over with Tony, Martha and John, she arranged for him to stay with Martha but was worried when Liam told her he thought Xavier was back into drugs and searched his room at the farm. She went looking for Xavier and was angry to find him having a boxing lesson with Tony. After both Xavier and Tony had walked away from her attempt to give them a dressing down and Rachel had failed to convince her to change her stance on boxing teaching people to resort to violent, she went to confront Tony only for him to tell her that Martha wasn't coping with Hugo's death as much as everyone thought. Realising Xavier staying at the farm wasn't an option, she let him move back in and agreed she would only see John away from the house.
Gina was thrown when both Martha and Xavier mentioned that they still missed Hugo, insisting that she didn't and encouraging Martha to do the same. She invited John round to dinner, telling Xavier their deal only applied to him staying the night, and was disappointed when Xavier said very little and left the room as soon as the meal was finished, even though John felt they were making progress. She was on the receiving end of some criticism when she suspended Miles from work after finding out about Rabbit and trying to get him to have a psych assessment but when he received counselling she supported his reinstatement. She went for dinner with John to help cope with the situation and ended up sleeping with him again. She tried to keep out of John and Tony's boxing argument and was suspicious when she learned Xavier hadn't been keeping up his boxing training but still had a locker at the gym. She asked John to let her search it and was shocked to find a large amount of money there. Martha admitted to her that it was from Hugo and she tried to get rid of it, despite Martha and Xavier both wanting to honour Hugo's wishes.
When she heard Hugo was alive, Gina had very mixed feelings, admitted she'd buried her love for him so deep she wasn't sure if she could find it again. It didn't stop her slapping Angelo in public and accusing him of putting her family through hell, effectively making the news public. She was furious with Hugo when he turned up at school, telling him he was dead to her after betraying the way she'd raised him, but when he seemed ready to walk out on her she forgave him and twice hid him from Angelo and Charlie before letting him stay with Martha. She wasn't in the mood to deal with seeing John getting into a flirtatious chat with Jill and being kissed by her, throwing a jug of water over him and leaving him sleeping on the doorstep when he tried to explain, although she reconsidered slightly when Romeo told her it was probably Jill who instigated it. When Xavier went missing, she frantically searched for him and ended up willingly going with 'Killer' to try and find him. It resulted in her being tied up in a water barrel with Martha and Xavier and nearly drowning before Xavier got them free. After expressing her relief that everyone was fine, she left the others and went to John's house, unaware Jill was hiding in the next room. She told him about what had happened and was miffed when John didn't let her stay the night, claiming he didn't want to take advantage. She told Xavier that they had to make the most of the little time they had with Hugo and was at the farm for some of Eaves' attempt to kill him, giving her a chance to see him and Martha one last time before they fled town.
With the crisis over, she was shocked to realise she'd lost John to Jill after discovering they'd spent the night together and John told her that Jill was uncomplicated while she blew hot and cold all the time. She was even more shocked when Romeo offered to help her win him back and tried to dissuade him from getting involved. After she and John had talked things over and she'd made it clear she still wanted to be with him, their relationship was soon back on track.