List of Home and Away characters introduced in 2002

Max Sutherland, portrayed by Sebastian Elmaloglou, made his first appearance on 21 January 2002 and departed on 1 September 2004. Following guest appearances on various television serials including ''GP''. Max was Elmaloglou's first ongoing role He told the serial's official website how he differed from his character. "He is nothing like me because he is accused for everything as he is very cheeky and I'm not like that". Around the time of his debut, Elmaloglou began watching repeats of Home and Away starring his sister, Rebekah who played Sophie Simpson. "It is so funny watching Rebekah because she looks completely different. I have been told that when I was a baby and we were out together as a family, people would go up to Bec and ask her if I was her baby, after she had the baby on the show".

Max arrives in Summer Bay with his father, Pete (Christopher Mayer) to stay with his uncle Rhys (Michael Beckley) and aunt Shelley (Paula Forrest). Max's stay with his relatives becomes permanent when Pete flees to Hong Kong to escape gambling debts. He struggles to adjust to his new life but quickly makes a friend in caravan park resident Colleen Smart (Lyn Collingwood). He is also often in trouble at school along with his cousin Kirsty (Christie Hayes). Max later helps Colleen write a book under the pen-name "Maxine Peterson". He is also the centre of a small love triangle with Tamara Simpson (Sophie Luck) and Caitlin (Bree Beadman), who both want him to dedicate the book to them but both disappear from his life. Max then finds Tasha Andrews (Isabel Lucas), a disoriented girl on the beach and quickly becomes friendly with her. Eloise Lennox (Suzanne McEachernn), a new student at Summer Bay High catches Max's eye but has a hard time getting to know her due to her overprotective parents. Eloise reveals she is dying of Leukaemia and Max helps her live out her final wishes. After a date, Eloise dies in Max's arms.

Max creates a memorial place for Eloise in an abandoned mineshaft, but it collapses when Rhys, Kirsty and Jade (Kate Garven) arrive to find him. They are all eventually rescued. When Rhys marries Beth Hunter (Clarissa House, following his divorce from Shelley, Max has to contend with her younger children, twins Henry (Tobi Atkins) and Matilda (Indiana Evans), who are frequently rude to the Sutherlands due to being uprooted from their boarding school. Max and Henry do not get along at first and do not see eye to eye. After Principal Barry Hyde (Ivar Kants) catches Henry holding Max in a headlock he sentences them to a boxing match which Henry wins after Max is distracted. Max and Henry both become friends in time. Max had a short attraction to Matilda but she rebuffs him. Following the collapse of the Sutherland family and Rhys reconciling with Shelley, Max begins to feel out of place in the bay and feels betrayed by Rhys and Shelley. In spite of being offered a home with his uncle and aunt in the city, Max decides to leave Summer Bay to attend boarding school.

For his portrayal of Max, Elmaloglou was nominated for "Best Young Actor" at the 2004 Inside Soap Awards. Channel 5 chose the 2003 season finale where Max and his family fall into a Mineshaft as one their best ever episodes. In 2017, Daniel Kilkelly of Digital Spy praised the character's plots, saying "He was one of the few soap kids who actually had some decent storylines, including love triangles, boxing showdowns, his girlfriend's untimely death, and even a shock mineshaft collapse. Blimey – and he was only there for less than three years!" Lucy Lather from ''Inside Soap'' criticised Max and Eloise's terminal illness plot for copying an earlier storyline featuring Blake Dean (Les Hill) and Meg Bowman (Cathy Godbold) "Come on, ''Home and Away'' - you can't just revamp old storylines." Provided by Wikipedia