Kim and Julie Nunn were working on one of their farming properties in Carngham on January 8 when they saw smoke on the horizon.

A quick call to triple zero confirmed it was a bushfire, so they rushed back to their three-bedroom home down the road.

Kim went to save the livestock while Julie prepared to defend the house which the couple had bought back in 1980, the same year they were married.

“I was staying, I was prepared, as fire ready as I thought I would be,” Mrs Nunn said.

“I had said all week that I would be prepared and I had water, all the hoses were set, I had everything right.

“I was ready to stay but never would have thought this could happen.”

But all plans went out the window when the wind changed, blowing the fire directly towards the house.

“They (Kim and our son) got in the utes and it was coming faster than they could drive,” she said.

“Kim said ‘get out’, we got the dogs and that was it.”

Mr Nunn said the family had escaped by “just minutes”.

“We were up the back trying to save livestock and the wife was down here (at the house) and when the wind changed we had to bolt,” he said.

“We got the dogs out and we bolted up the road.”

The couple’s weather board home was completely destroyed, and most of their 180ha property burnt.

They also lost about 600 sheep, 60 cows and a wheat crop.

“We were very lucky and I think at least nobody was hurt in the fires,” Mrs Nunn said. 

“There were a few blisters and things but nobody was really hurt, that’s the main thing.”

Now the Nunns are waiting for their insurance payout so they can rebuild.

When asked if they had contemplated rebuilding somewhere else, Julie shook her head emphatically.

“We will rebuild, but we’ll just take it one day at a time.”