The lunches are held regularly to welcome new arrivals to the city and to give them the chance to introduce themselves to other newcomers and develop links to the community and and to the council. 

One new arrival Rafeal Ortega said Orange's reputation in Sydney meant they were never going to consider moving anywhere else. 

"My family and I decided to move because we were looking for a nice place to raise the family," he said.

"We had a little boy in school here and knew the schools here were a beautiful choice for him so we decided to come, look for a house, look for work and the reputation of Orange as such a lovely community town, it's so highly regarded in Sydney that we had no choice but to come here." 

VIDEO: Why Rafeal Ortega decided to move his family to Orange …

Meanwhile, Peter and Donna Schmelitschek moved to Orange after 30 years living in Hawkesbury.

The couple moved to Windera, just up the Mitchell Highway towards Molong to run their business breeding Border Collies. 

"We've been married for 45 years and always lived in Sydney, for the last 30 we've lived in Hawkesbury," Mr Schmelitschek said. 

"We ran a BnB for 10 years and after we started that I went back to work but it felt like it was time to move on to something simpler.

VIDEO: Why Peter and Donna Schmelitschek moved to Orange … 

"We searched for all of NSW for a suitable property, somewhere big enough to have border collies and alpacas and room for amateur radio antennas."

He said the couple were "lucky enough" to find five acres at Windera and were able to secure it before selling their house.

"We love being here, I particularly love the cold weather," Mr Schmelitschek said.