Neighbours is an Australian television soap opera. It was created by Reg Watson and first broadcast on 18 March 1985. The following is a list of characters that first appeared in the soap in 2001, by order of first appearance. All characters were introduced by the show's executive producer Stanley Walsh. The 17th season of Neighbours began airing on 15 January 2001. made her debut in the following month. arrived in March, while his father, , and Jack Scully began appearing from April. made her debut in May and arrived the following month. September saw the introduction of . began appearing from October, while followed in November. December saw the introductions of , and , as well as the year's first birth, .