Exclusive: Rugby league legend's wife forced to jump in lake to survive devastating Lake Conjola fire

Rugby league legend Ron Coote has told of how he lost his home of 35 years in Lake Conjola to bushfires as his family later desperately jumped into a lake to take shelter.

Ron Coote's wife, Robin, said that she was with her daughter and a couple of friends, when they had to make the split-second decision to jump in.

"We got down onto the pontoon and the flames were there, it was really scary… and I jumped in. It was daytime, but it was pitch black," she told Today.

In the end Mrs Coote was saved by a passer-by on a jetski after spending about an hour in the lake.

"I was up with fire hoses and I had lost track of what had happened to them. And I hear after, they had ran down to where the pontoon was, they had to jump in the lake, the three of them," Ron Coote told Today.

"My daughter Natalie helped then all down… and they had to swim out and had to tread water."

The Coote family lost their home of 35 years after a desperate battle to save it.

Ron Coote said the fire moved at lightning-fast speed, and there was little he could do.

"The fires started up on the highway which is 2.5km from where we live. It happened so quickly, all of a sudden on top of us," he said.

"We were defending there, we had fire hoses, pumps and had to use the water out of the swimming pool, then it got up into the eaves of those house… then she went up mate."

His daughter's house, which is next door, was also lost. At least 50 homes in Lake Conjola have been destroyed.

"They both went up… we lost them, we lost everything. It's a bit daunting of a morning when you get up and you have no clothes to put on. We used to get up and go to the drawer to put something on and away you'd go, but unfortunately that's happened.

"That's life, you get on with it... we're not going to let this interfere with our great life we have down here."

Many towns across NSW and Victoria are now facing severe food and water shortages in what is being branded as a humanitarian crisis.

Mr Coote said they are unable to leave Lake Conjola to get supplies.

"We've been lucky cause we've been with the McKelby family, who have been looking after us. Lucky because they have good supplies but that's all coming to an end. We need food, we need to be able to leave here to get food, the shops have nothing, there is no water on the shelves. There is nothing in the shops."

He said the community is feeling cut off, forgotten, and has directed a message to the Government.

"I think it's just crazy that they're doing that to us. We need to be able to go into town and come back if we have got to.

"The number one message is, the fires all the time that are coming never used to happen years ago. I think they've got to get back to the burning, not stopping everyone from burning the bush around the house so you can clear the house."

Despite the ordeal, Mr Coote said that he and his family plan to rebuild.