Although Kiri Durant was only on-screen for around 4 months in 2022 before the show was cruelly ripped from our screens, her time on Neighbours was, at the very least, eventful.
Kiri, played by Gemma Bird Matheson, was first seen as the owner of the River Bend camp where a group of Erinsborough residents headed out to in March 2022 on a retreat weekend. As with every time Neighbours heads out into the bush, disaster was not far behind when thug Gareth showed up.
A violent turn of events saw Levi Canning shot and left unconscious after hitting his head and in one of the most graphic scenes ever seen on the show, Gareth pummeled Aaron Brennan to within an inch of his life. Later, when Gareth himself was seriously injured in a car accident, David Tanaka chose not to give medical care to his husband’s attacker, leading to his death.
Before all of the drama unfolded, Kiri and Nicolette (then played by actor Charlotte Chimes) had a special connection and spent the night together at the camp. Unbeknownst to Kiri and Nicolette at the time, Kiri was actually the secret daughter of Glen Donnelly. (And thus, part of the Robinson family.)
Due to the bad publicity following the tragic events, Kiri was forced to close River Bend and headed to Erinsborough to reconnect with Nicolette.
Glen and Kiri’s familial connection was eventually revealed, Kiri ended up working with father Glen at the vineyard, Nicolette and Kiri broke up, Kiri had a short fling with Chloe Brennan (who could forget the silhouette sex?) but in the show’s 2022 ‘finale’ which promised everyone a happy-ever-after, we saw Nic and Kiri pair up once again.
When Neighbours returned last September, Kiri and Nic had both left Ramsay Street and we eventually learned that their relationship had broken down thanks to religious leader Sasha. We will be honest with you , we still don’t fully understand that whole Sasha story, but it looks as though we will hopefully get some clarification when Kiri drops back into Erinsborough next month.
Kiri arrives on Thursday, July 4th and whilst we don’t know exactly why she is back, these first look images show her reconnecting with Nicolette and also sharing scenes with Sasha (So maybe we will understand that story a little better).
Nicolette has been lamenting her lack of love life in recent weeks, especially after a steamy hook up with Amira Devkar, so we are expecting Nic to be excited to see her long-lost love once again. But if we know anything about people arriving into Erinsborough, there is always more than meets the eye… so what does Kiri’s return have in store?
Kiri is back starting on July 4th. If you are a newer viewer to Neighbours, you can watch the River Bend series of episodes (Generally considered to be some of the best episodes the show ever put out, both in story and visually) you can catch them on Amazon Freevee and Amazon Prime Video in the 2022 season, starting with episode 8799.