Wind speeds of up to 61km hit Bendigo at 1.30pm and left Epsom’s Paula Ellis counting her blessings.

Ms Ellis said she noticed the storm coming in and thought it looked like “tornado weather”.

“At first it just felt like the world was shaking,” she said.

“Then there was a bang and I just ran towards my children.”

The branch came through the roof and caused significant damage to roof, beams and inside of the house.

Ms Ellis said the branch missed her by less than a metre and came close to her baby Miller and two-year-old Cooper.

“They both sat there in stunned silence,” she said.

Cooper kept asking that I get rid of the tree.

“It’s my birthday today and my first thought was 'my weekend is ruined'.

“I’ve spent the past three days working on the garden with my parents.

“This is the last thing I thought would happen.”

Bendigo SES unit training officer Fiona Beecham said the house had sustained more damage than they expected.

“We needed to secure the crane on both ends of the branch before it could be removed,” she said.

“They’re lucky no one was hurt. Trees can just get weak and then it just takes a strong gust of wind to knock them down.

“Or when it’s dry and they get a little bit of rain they can just be too heavy.

“The season is just starting off for us.”

Ms Beecham said the SES was called out to five other jobs, but none with as much damage.

The wind also played havoc with V/line train services. Two trains experienced delays of more than 30 minutes.