Hello MsBeliever
Hello and welcome. It is a hard place you are in. There are not many options for someone walking out of their home. You are saying you have no family or friends you can stay with which would be the ideal until you get on your feet. Do you have a job? Leaving this partner will mean you need your own money to survive.
There are a couple of organisations that provide emergency homes, but I think you should check with them first. The organisations I know of are Salvation Army, Anglicare and possibly St Vincent de Paul, though I'm not sure of this last one. There may be a women's refuge in your area which you could try, but please have somewhere to go before you leave your current home. Living on the streets is not pretty.
You can find rented accommodation by going to a real estate agent. Rental costs vary from place to place so I cannot give you an estimate. You will need a bond for this and I understand the Dept of Housing will lend you this amount. You should also visit CentreLink, especially if you have means of support. Go to CentreLink anyway.
There are other homeless shelters, it all depends where you live. Use your search engine to find these places.
Did you have a counsellor while you were on meds? Can you return to him/her and talk about your fear of leaving. I'm not sure what you mean about 'people finding out'. I can understand your fear of being on your own but only you can decide if you want to leave and be on your own for a while, until you have made friends elsewhere. Or if that fear is keeping you where you are. This is also a good topic to talk about with a counsellor.
You can start looking for accommodation while you are meeting with the counsellor. I think you have more strength than you realise. Being depressed is horrible but you took charge of your life and received counselling and took an antidepressant. That's a huge step. Then you discovered that life can be better and now you are managing without medication. That's huge success story in my book.
If you can do all that I think you can manage living on your own until you make friends. You returned to live with your partner some years ago. Since then you have made progress in your own life. This is another challenge and you may well feel lonely to start with, but like your kicking your depression you can manage and make a new life for yourself.
I hope this is helpful.
Mary
