Wendy Watt and Chimaera Gold begin to suspect that Holly's discovery of the extinct Golden Speckled Leaping Legless Lizard is a fabrication. But after Holly is intimidated by Wendy's henchmen Nick pays her a visit and tells her to call off her witch-hunt or he will take it further. Unfortunately, Chimaera Gold are allowed to begin mining and the Community Garden are given 21 days to vacate. Meanwhile, Tim and Gavin break the news to the Louisa and Vivien that they're selling the newspaper to Wentworth Regional Press. Gavin asks Louisa to accompany him to Melbourne but she refuses and finally Nick and Louisa get together. Later Gavin, Vivien and Louisa go into partnership and buy out the Rainbow Echo. Elsewhere, Sandy passes away in his sleep after moving into Minna's home. At his funeral service the elusive Golden Speckled Leaping Legless Lizard makes a very rare appearance and puts an end to Chimaera Gold's mining.

Holly tries to save the Community Garden from the clutches of Chimaera Gold and its mining exploits by pretending that she seen the extinct Golden Speckled Leaping Legless Lizard thus preventing the company going ahead with the mining. Louisa prints the story but after wards Holly tells her it was a hoax and Louisa has to decide if she will reveal all in a retraction or keep quite. Elsewhere, Nick and Tim vie for Louisa's affection but their rivalry only drives her further away and Chin Trueng Chi returns from Melbourne and promptly tells everyone that he and Rita are getting engaged much to Rita's horror.

Former editor of the Rainbow Echo Wendy Watt arrives back in town as spokesperson for Chimera Gold - an underhand mining company who specialize at buying up properties near mines around remote areas of Australia and exploiting them. So when Louisa, Minna and Holly find out that their target area is the new community garden all gloves are off and they set off to expose the company before they can wreck anymore damage. Meanwhile, Sandy's Alzheimer's begins to worsen, Nick finds out that Louisa's husband was going to leave her and Marg goes on a blind date with a man who calls himself 'Tom Cruise' and which turns out to be a disaster. Elsewhere, Marty takes over selling plots for the community garden but gets himself fired by Holly when she finds he is selling plots that don't exist. Minna and Sandy set up a company called Foxglove Fragrances but what they are cooking up is not exactly fragrant.

Nick's disappointment begins to show as Louisa and Tim's relationship continues to grow. Meanwhile, Pat and Gemma's relationship is under threat because of Pat's intimacy issues and it seems everyone in Rainbows End is aware of it.

Louisa, Gemma and Marg try to save Deb and Trev's marriage as Gemma discovers that perhaps her marriage is also suffering. Minna finds herself helpless to stop the Heritage Committee from falling apart as they are bullied by a farmer named Owen into selling their land but Holly steps in to save the day and turn the land into a community garden. Marg and Gavin's divorce comes through and Nick learns Holly how to drive as both he and Louisa avoid each other.

Louisa's first foray as acting editor of the Rainbow Echo is fraught with problems with Tim continuously bumping her editorial and Gavin inserting ads over her feature piece. Meanwhile, Sean avoids Holly and Marg's date with Gavin is not a success. Elsewhere, Rita helps Tsung Chi find out about his ancestor's disappearance.

Louisa finds out that Nick is quite the ladies man and cannot figure out why they don't have any chemistry at all. Holly gets involved in a protest that rapidly gets out of hand when Minna finds out local factory Dairy Fleet is polluting the local waterways and The Department of Sustainability and the Environment are refusing to believe that there is a problem. Louisa begs Gavin for a job as editor at the Rainbow Echo but he will only give her a job as advertising sales and up the advertising rate making it impossible to sell any advertising space. Gavin's new business partner Tim Price comes on board as the Rainbow Echo's new managing director and offers Louisa the job as trainee acting editor and starts changing the office around much to Gavin and Vivien's astonishment.

Louisa and Holly return to Rainbow's End after their holiday in Europe with hopes of making changes after cashing in on her nugget find. But Louisa's spending and lack of attention look like putting a spanner in the works - not to mention the illegal prospecting going on at her home. Wendy announces that the Rainbow Echo newspaper is closing which riles Minna and leads her into another protest and convinces Louisa to buy it but Gavin outbids her. Meanwhile, Holly and Sean go on a successful picnic together but a date between Louisa and Nick doesn't go according to plan and is an outright disaster. Elsewhere, Gavin goes ahead with opening his 'Big Nugget' monument but Marty's usual shoddy workmanship puts paid to it.