When I was first offered a position as a cadet at The Courier I was horrified that I'd have to move out of my McMansion in Melbourne into some creaky old house in Ballarat all by myself.

One of my best friends from high school, Emily, was my salvation.

She was studying in Ballarat and I rang to ask if I could crash on her couch while I found a place to stay.

Imagine my delight when she told me one of her housemates had just moved out and she had a room available.

In early January I moved in and lived alone in the home for the first month while the girls were on summer holidays.

It was tough and it was lonely.

I literally knew no-one in Ballarat apart from the few people I'd met at work and I spent most nights on the couch watching DVDs eating ice cream, and wishing I'd been able to get a job closer to home.

Then one warm, summer day after work, I drove home to fine three beautiful girls lying on the driveway in the sun.

As the bright sunshine lit up their golden skin I got the first look at my new housemates and suddenly living in Ballarat wasn't so scary anymore.

Emily is a pocket rocket.

She is fun, spontaneous and always up for mischief, but has the kindest heart and most gentle soul I've ever encountered.

Ali is an absolute goof-bag.

While she sometimes seems completely vague and comes out with the best one-liners you'll ever hear, she's always ready with a cup of tea if you just want to relax.

Jess is a strong individual.

I think we’re very similar. She has a dry sense of humour and bursts into song all the time.

One thing I should probably mention is that while my three housemates are down-to-earth, fun-time-gals, they are in their final year of an acting course at the University of Ballarat and their theatrics blow me away.

While recently completing a film and television unit for their course, the girls had to memorise a different script each night for different exercises.

This sounds harmless enough until one evening they decided to run lines during the ad breaks while watching TV.

I was sitting on the floor playing spider solitaire on my laptop while the girls rehearsed the lines over and over again.

It wasn't until one of the girls made a mistake and I corrected it absentmindedly that I realised I had absorbed the entire script, down to the stage directions.

The girls do two major productions a year, which means two rounds of gruelling auditions.

Unfortunately for them, this year it seems the two plays chosen have had male-dominated casts and the major female roles were highly sought after.

After the first play in semester one I learnt my lesson – no-one is ever completely happy with an audition.

Sure you can walk out of it feeling OK about yourself, but there is always some niggling doubt that so-and-so was better, or that you wished you'd done this-or-that.

Our household experience the full gamut of emotions after that first audition process.

One girl was devastated, one girl was pretty happy and confident, and the third was neither here nor there and was just happy it was over.

That night we consumed about three cups of tea each and a couple of kilos of chocolate.

There was absolutely no need for the girls to fret though.

I saw the play on closing night and each completely blew me away.

Emily is a chameleon who I didn't even recognise once she was in character; Ali was absolutely stunning as a devilish, temptress; and Jess has the best comic timing and hilarious facial expressions that I laughed the whole way through.

The girls are always full of crazy stories from their days at uni and I can't imagine what I will do when they all move to Melbourne at the end of the year to pursue careers in acting.

I will miss them coming home at midnight with their hair in curls and their faces caked in stage make up.

I will miss the tea and chocolate-fuelled nights learning lines.

I will miss them practicing their accents and putting on funny voices (especially their male alter-egos that greet me with “hey, pretty lady” when I get home from work).

But the thing I will miss the most is the way they welcomed me into their home and made the transition to Ballarat so much easier.

And I know that I will make the most of the next six months I have with them, because they are three of the most spectacular girls I've ever met.