The first few months of 1989 were dominated by Bobby's search for her parents and the revelations that followed. The last few episodes had left us with the knowledge that Alf knew who Bobby's mother was, but he refused to tell her. Whilst Alf, Ailsa and Roo were in the city, Bobby went through Martha's diaries to try and come up with the answer. With the letter "B" and Celia's memories of the time, she thought it must be Barbara and rushed off to the city. Barbara told Bobby she wasn't her mother, but told Alf she knew that Morag was Bobby's mother. At her wedding to Frank, Morag sneaked into the church, but while she was leaving her seaplane crash and she was badly injured and taken to hospital. Worried that Morag may die; Alf told Bobby who her mother was, and thanks to Alison Patterson overhearing, the news was soon widespread.
Soon after, Fisher realised that Bobby must be his child from an affair with Morag and became more and more attached to Bobby. When he bought Bobby an expensive dress to go to Morag's cocktail party (Morag having now moved to the Bay permanently after her marriage fell apart after the revelations), Pippa realised that Fisher was Bobby's father. After Bobby ripped into Morag on national TV, Morag decided that she would tell Bobby who her father was at the cocktail party. Lance, who was wearing a microphone and earpiece linked to Steven so he could try and sound smart, feigned a collapse after Steven overheard Roo and Morag plotting, but now half the Bay knew who Bobby's father was and when Bobby walked in them arguing over whether she should be told, she ran off, but soon accepted Fisher as her father.
Stacey returned to the Bay, now engaged to Nicholas Walsh, another partner at the Macklin Corporation. Gordon was using Nicholas to get what he wanted out of Summer Bay, trying to get the residents to sell up and using poison pen letters to scare Ailsa. With Morag's help, Alf mistakenly accused Roo of sending the letters and chased Roo straight into Morag's arms. However it was soon discovered that it was Nicholas doing all the blackmailing and Stacey broke off the engagement and was soon engaged to Philip and Morag's plotting drove Roo straight back out again, with Roo moving on to Celia's. Bobby and Frank's marriage began to falter after they were made homeless and moved in with Fisher. Whilst at work one evening, Frank and Roo had a kiss and then soon moved to the city when Frank was promoted.
Carly returned from the city, but she now had a drink problem, but she soon managed to get over it. Her counsellor turned up to be none other than Andrew Foley and they started a relationship which quickly blossomed into an engagement. However after the death of Andrew's father, a dark secret of Andrew's came out. He too was an alcoholic and when he was unable to control his drinking, the engagement was broken off as he too tried to recover.
A few months into the year, a rather unsavoury character named Dodge rolled into town. Breaking into cars, stealing, he did it. When he stole some of Philip's pills, he hid them in Celia's shop. Celia discovered the pills and waited until he returned and Dodge was arrested. Soon after he committed arson on the shop and killed Philip who was asleep in the flat next door. Dodge disappeared for a few weeks, but then turned up as the Fletcher's new foster kid. He soon began leading Steven astray, taking on him weekends to the city when they were supposed to be camping. Steven began to develop an attitude and his school work began to suffer. It was on one trip to the city where Dodge and Steven bumped into Viv and brought her back to the bay. Sally never liked Dodge and his tormenting of her led to Sally asked to leave because she thought she wasn't wanted. To disprove this, Tom and Pippa moved to formally adopt Sally. Soon after Sally's aunt and uncle appeared, wanting to adopt Sally themselves and began showering her with gifts. Just as she was about to leave, Sally realised it was the people of Summer Bay she wanted to be with and decided to stay.
Adam Cameron sailed into the bay in his yacht, but that was soon trashed by Revhead and he found himself stuck in the bay whilst it needed to be fixed. After taking on odd jobs around the town, he began fixing the boat. One night he asked a drunken Dodge on board when Dodge revealed that he had sent the shop on fire. Since this had happened before Adam had arrived, he was initially confused, but began talking to Steven about who began piecing the clues together and realised that Dodge, his best friend for the past 4 months had been the one that had killed his uncle.
Viv, the girl that they had brought back from the city was being abused by her reverend father. After a charade that had her pretend to be Lance's cousin, John Newton soon tracked her down and took her back. A frantic phone call led to Bobby and Steven heading down to the city to bring her back to Summer Bay. When they got there Fisher agreed to look after Viv, but her sister, Tammy, was unable to go against her father and returned to live with him. Throughout the rest of the year Steven and Viv had a will-they, won't-they relationship that wasn't resolved until the final part of the season when they finally kissed.
Ailsa had received a surprise early in the year when she discovered she was pregnant. She gave birth to a boy named Duncan whilst Alf and Tom were lost at sea, but suffered from post-natal depression upon their return from hospital. Only after Celia put him in hospital after a reaction to the christening robe did Ailsa become able to cope with her new found responsibilities. Duncan wasn't the only new arrival in the Stewart House during the year when Ailsa's niece, Emma, arrived after claiming she was being abused by her mother's partner. Emma, a punk, arrived with an attitude and initially struggled to make friends or get work. She began to lead a naive Viv astray and it was only after they had nearly been raped, that she decided to get rid of the confrontational image and turned up at a dance a different girl. All this was in an effort to gain Steven's attention; however he only had eyes for Viv.
Lance became engaged to a girl he had met in the city named Marilyn. Ditzy and clumsy, Marilyn initially struggled to fit in, causing havoc at the diner and then at Morag's mansion. However, after Stacey's friend Nina discovered her, she made her the female member of her new band, Image, also featuring Lance and Martin and they became famous. However Lance became more and more disillusioned with the whole thing and revealed on Saturday TV that it was all a con and they weren't the ones singing. However Marilyn's star had been noticed and she took a job on TV, moving away from the bay and breaking off her engagement. When they came back to film a show in Summer Bay, she was unable to embarrass her old friends and chose Lance over a TV career and they got back together.
Morag became the victim of a scare campaign later in the year. After discovering she was the judge who had sentenced his father, Danny Price turned up in Summer Bay to ruin Morag's life as well. He had initially planned to kill Bobby, but soon discovered that she hated Morag as much as she did and they actually began a relationship. He began playing tricks on Morag, such as pretending to hang himself from the rafters of her house, sending her spiders in the post and other letter and messages. After Morag got a private detective onto Danny, she discovered he was the one that been making her life hell. He then locked her in a cupboard, but was discovered in time, and soon both Morag and Danny left Summer Bay.
Tom had narrowly escaped death when he was shipwrecked with Alf earlier in the season and worked longer and longer hours to get the resort up and running. After the opening, he collapsed after suffering a stroke and spent many weeks in hospital. Whilst he was in hospital, a shark swam into Summer Bay, consuming a boy named Rory who had been staying with the Fletcher's. With a shark in the area, the bay decided to pay for a shark hunter and hired Zac Burgess. Zac, instead of catching a shark, bought a shark to flog it off as the real one and then kissed Pippa as Tom walked in on them. The last scene of the year showed the shark still swimming in the ocean as Summer Bay partied to celebrate the capturing of the shark.
In other minor stories throughout the year were The Bayside Diner opening its doors; Floss and Neville left to rejoin the circus after doing nothing for the best part of 12 months; Celia fell in love for the first time since Les' death when she feel for Morag's blind butler Nigel; Martin had a relationship with a girl named Leanne; the Bunyip storyline, but frankly the less said about that, the better; Steven had a Fisher's daughter Rebecca after she stayed with him for the holidays; Coral's mother turned up and turned out to be a shoplifter and Matt, well I can't actually think of anything noteworthy Matt did during the year