It's a girl for the Rafters!

Proud parents Julie and Dave with Ruby, the newest addition to the Rafter family.

Seven drama ends the year with a new member for the Rafter family.

Television has a new star, in the form of 'Ruby Louise Rafter' who was born to viewers last night in the season finale of Packed to the Rafters.

The baby girl arrived for Julie (Rebecca Gibney) after a season-long pregnancy in an episode that was full of near misses, comedy and heartfelt moments.

For much of the second-half of the episode, Julie was in hospital screaming for her absent husband Dave (Erik Thomson) who was busy, ironically, getting a vasectomy. About to go under the knife, Dave had turned off his mobile phone on the very day that Julie's labour pains began.

It was son Ben (Hugh Sheridan) who first alerted friends and family to the crisis, fumbling through "Richard Branson, Braxton hiccups" until nurse Mel (Zoe Ventoura) clarified "Braxton Hicks" to the poor guy.

The episode was full of quintessentially Aussie scenes, including priceless moments with Julie screaming at a whimpering Dave. "Stop kissing me!" she yelled.

Meanwhile, Jake (James Stewart) and Rachel (Jessica Marais) were becoming alarmingly close to commitment, while Nathan (Angus McLaren) told Sammy (Jessica McNamee) he had a gambling problem -- which left her seemingly departing the family as a series cliffhanger.

Rafters has certainly been another big hit for Seven, as its most popular drama of the year. It regularly rates around 1.9 million viewers and still shows extraordinary goodwill from a devoted fan base.

This year, however, producers got a wake-up call when they copped complaints over male fantasy sequences that many deemed too rude for their feel-good show. Producer Bevan Lee has recently defended the show as depicting both black and white sides of an Australian family, suggesting there could be more sensitive issues in store.

It also ends the year with a Gold Logie for Gibney, another for Most Popular Drama, and three more for Marais and Sheridan. Next month it is up for two more awards at the AFI Awards.