A year on from the bushfire that destroyed her childhood home and everything in it, Emily Colman still manages to see the bright side of the experience.
"I think losing our house has brought the family closer together, making us realise what really is important in life, rather than focusing on material possessions" said Ms Colman, whose house was one of 42 lost in Buena Vista Road, the most fire-ravaged street in Winmalee.
"Luckily my family had insurance, which meant once the attention died off we were able to start rebuilding our house and maintain our lifestyles without the help of others."
However, the 19-year-old admitted there were significant hardships along the way.
"Even though we have replaced a lot of the things we lost, there were so many sentimental possessions that were destroyed and can't be replaced," she said.
"One of our cats was lost in the fires, and I found that the hardest thing to come to realise, and still do."
Ms Colman featured on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald on November 9 in a donated bright red formal dress and is still moved by the community support following the fires.
"It was incredible - we received help from the Salvos, Vinnies, mine and my sister's workplaces (Bakers Delight, IGA, Priceline), as well as Winmalee High School and so many other places and people," she said.
"The support allowed us to get back on our feet and stay as positive as we could about the whole situation."
Ms Colman was a member of the class of 2013 at Winmalee High, which meant her HSC was severely disrupted. Fire-affected students were able to apply for illness/misadventure forms from the Board of Studies.
"After the fires, my teachers said I didn't have to do the exams," Ms Colman said. "I couldn't really do an exam properly because all of my study notes were gone, and I would have been pretty distracted."
The middle daughter in a family of five worked hard at her studies throughout Year 12, so her assessment marks were good enough to gain her entry into a Bachelor of Primary Education and Psychology degree at Macquarie University.
"I was always going to take a gap year, and I planned on travelling late in the year, but I decided to go earlier," said Ms Colman who spent three months in Europe and Thailand.
"I'm living in Mount Riverview in a rental property now with my family. We were lucky enough to find a place pretty quickly. The rebuilding is coming along slowly but surely - we now have a frame with a roof. We're just waiting for the bricks to be laid, then the interior can be started. We're hoping to be in by Christmas."
- Ben Skinner was a member of the HSC class of 2013 at Winmalee High School. He is currently studying journalism at the University of Western Sydney.