A Melbourne woman has been cleared of murdering her lifelong partner after suffering years of abuse at his hands.

Gayle Dunlop, 60, was found not guilty of murder by a Supreme Court jury. She was also acquitted of manslaughter.

Last July, Ms Dunlop fatally injured her partner John Reed, 63, when she hit him over the head with a wooden footstool at their at their Seaford unit, in Melbourne's south-east, in July 2015.

He died in hospital from his injuries several days later.

Ms Dunlop's lawyer told the jury she had suffered years of abuse from Mr Reed, including being knocked unconscious and placed in a wheelie bin.

Justice Lex Lasry told jurors they had delivered the right verdict.

"I say this extremely rarely, in my opinion your verdict was a most appropriate verdict and brings this awful saga obviously to a conclusion," he said.

The court heard the couple were heavy drinkers and often heard arguing at their unit complex.

Neighbours had also observed bruises on her face and hips and paramedics were called to treat Ms Dunlop, whose head was split open just weeks before Mr Reed's death.

Ms Dunlop told paramedics he had inflicted the injury and she thought he was going to kill her.

'He's going to kill you', mother warned

Ms Dunlop gave evidence during the trial about the violence Mr Reed inflicted.

She said he was a controlling and very jealous man who isolated her from her friends early in their relationship.

She said that behaviour escalated to physical abuse, with him "pushing" and "shoving" her.

"I was never a day without my face [being injured], and all was just a mess, never had time to heal." she said.

Ms Dunlop told the court her mother warned her about him, telling her "watch out for the quiet ones ... one day he's going to kill you".

Accused was thrown in wheelie bin

The court heard while living in Western Australia, Ms Dunlop woke up after a friend's engagement party, not remembering Mr Reed's violence towards her the night before.

"All I remember is walking in the door and there's nothing I remember afterwards," she said.

She said her five-year-old daughter told her she had been hit and thrown around. Ms Dunlop said she then followed a trail of blood outside.

"Then outside ...was just full of blood where he'd thrown me down and then he dragged me back and threw me in the wheelie bin," she said.

"Apparently my daughter said to him, 'you'll end up killing mummy'."

Ms Dunlop said her childhood was also marred by violence.

"There was not one day there wouldn't be broken glass everywhere, you couldn't even tiptoe. [Smashed] windows, food all over everything," she said.