Dana Matheson
Dana Matheson (2023-present)
Ally Harris
Episodes: 8095-present
Siblings: Harper Matheson
Occupation: Nurse
Harper’s sister was introduced on the run after being accused of drug theft, after drugs were found in her flat and her boyfriend Olly insisted they were hers. After Harper openly took a room at Irene’s place, she sneaked Dana in during the night. Dana quickly chafed at having to hide away, with Harper having to coax her back into the house when she stormed out in a huff. She later headed down the beach, shortly before Harper’s police officer friend Cash Newman, who had been looking into the case for her, turned up at the house and discovered Dana. He threatened to take her to the station, despite having realised that Will Madden, the detective in charge of the case, was corrupt. Dana told him that the prior drug charges Madden had mentioned were when she was young and Harper had helped her clean up her act: She’d since become a nurse and her pass had been used to steal the drugs from a hospital where she worked. Cash agreed to let Dana keep hiding. She revealed she and Harper were having lunch together at the time of the theft, something Madden tried to keep hidden, and rang Olly to taunt him about the fact she’d soon be in the clear but Madden ended up getting the CCTV footage before Cash could. They realised Olly must have tipped him off, indicating the pair were working together.
When Irene returned to the house from visiting her granddaughter, Dana went back to hiding in Harper’s room but Irene soon found her. She agreed to help the pair, but when Madden turned up, Dana turned herself in to protect Harper. Madden and his henchman Fletcher instead took her to a warehouse that was the haunt of a drug dealer. Dana managed to briefly get free and call Harper’s phone. Madden injected her with fenantyl, aiming to make it look like suicide, but she was found by Cash and Rose, who had traced the call. Dana recovered in hospital and confirmed Madden tried to kill her, leading to his arrest. Soon after, Dana was officially cleared and could finally move openly around Summer Bay.
Keen to settle in Summer Bay, Dana applied for a job as a private nurse looking after Roo, who was just out of hospital. She explained about losing her last job because of the theft accusation and Roo agreed to hire her. Marilyn asked Dana to let her know Roo’s condition but Dana wasn’t comfortable spying on Roo, before making a failed attempt to bring the two women back together. She ended up needing support of her own when Harper and Irene were arrested for hiding her from the police. She was worried when Harper refused to follow her lawyer’s advice and stay away from Irene, and looked into Irene’s past online, learning she’d been charged with grievous bodily harm once. With Marilyn having moved back in with Roo, Dana accidentally landed them in it with Alf by going to Roo for a reference, then spoke with Bree about a job at Northern Districts. Worried when Harper continued to ignore her lawyer’s advice as Irene’s sentencing date approached, Dana convinced Irene to tell Harper to move out. Despite this, Harper reminded her of how Irene had supported them and they both ended up accompanying her to court. In the end, the cases against both Irene and Harper were dismissed.
Eager to pay back the town for their support, Dana signed up for the bronze medallion. However, her first class was less than relaxing with John in a bad mood throughout. On her first day at Northern Districts, she ended up helping treat Mackenzie, who had been admitted with a heart attack, and was reunited with surgeon Levi Fowler, who knew her from St Luke’s but told her he didn’t care about the gossip about her. She learned John had been banned from teaching after another member of her class, Banjo Henderson, made a complaint and offered to talk to Banjo, but crossed wires resulted in him thinking they were on a date. She asked him to withdraw the complaint anyway and he explained his father was the one who insisted on pushing ahead with it. John took her out for a meal (one course) to thank her anyway and she encouraged his plans to set up a surf skills school to prepare people for bronze medallion, before Alf reinstated him at the surf club. She treated Mackenzie again when she was readmitted with a blood clot, defending Xander when Levi blamed him for her leaving hospital and giving everyone in town an update.