The mother's Indigo Close home in Wodonga was destroyed by flames in the early hours of January 1, leaving her so shocked she needed treatment from paramedics.

Jesse Lee Smith, 23 is charged over the incident and appeared before a committal in the Wodonga Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

The fire caused about $300,000 in damage.

The alleged victim said Smith had approached her multiple times at Paddy's on New Year's Eve before the incident.

The court heard she had told Smith she was going out on New Year's Eve, but had only told him as she was fearful of what would happen if she didn't let him know.

She went out armed with an intervention order, which she had taken out last October.

"I knew if I didn't tell him everything I was doing, a lot worse would have happened to me," she said.

"(If) he saw me out and didn't know I was out a lot of bad things would have happened to me."

The woman said she had been abused during their two-and-a-half year relationship but kept it hidden from friends and family.

"He always threw me around, threw me to the ground," she said.

"He always threatened to burn my house down, always threatened to kill me."

The alleged victim was with friends at Public House and Paddy's on New Year's Eve, and Smith allegedly swore at her at Paddy's when she didn't want to dance.

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The woman said Smith approached her about 2am and said "I'm going to f---ing murder you".

He allegedly came back and said "I'm gonna f---ing kill you ----".

"When he started threatening to murder me multiple times, that's when I pulled it out," she said of the intervention order, which she showed to security guards at the pub.

The court heard a friend later alerted her to the fire near her home.

The house was gutted.

One of the two work colleagues the woman was out with on the night said she was shocked to see Smith out, and later heard him call the alleged victim a "dog and ----".

Andrew Seamen, who was in a relationship with Smith's mother Amanda Paton at the time, also gave evidence.

He said he'd been having a video conversation with Ms Paton when Smith walked in.

"This time he came in, he wasn't the normal Jesse," he said.

"He was very angry and frustrated and jittery."

Mr Seamen said Smith had walked into the room and said words to the effect of "I got the bitch" before grabbing a cigarette from his mother and walking upstairs.

He said Ms Paton said "Jesse's burned his bloody girlfriend's house down" after speaking to her son.

But Mr Seamen's evidence was questioned, with defence lawyer Matthew Page asking why that interaction wasn't in his police statement

"It may have slipped my mind," he said.

Mr Seamen described Smith as being "sketchy, panicky" and later called police. He ended things with Smith's mother a short time later.

Taxi driver Ned Sharkey said he had worked the New Year's Eve shift, starting in Glenroy.

He recalled picking up a man with a lip ring on Ebden Street after being flagged down about 2.55am.

"I got a really good look at him," he said, noting that he thought the man was "on a mission".

He later identified the person on a police photo board of 12 images before making a statement.

Smith, who has been in custody since his arrest, is facing multiple charges, two of which were withdrawn on Wednesday.

His mother and other witnesses will give evidence when the matter returns to the court on Thursday.