Orange 360 general manager Caddie Marshall said 20 workers had moved into Millthorpe, most were at Blayney while some were staying in Orange.

A total of about 400 workers will come to the Orange region with the peak expected in October-November.

Ms Marshall said they were seeking to house many of the workers outside of Orange to avoid clashes with accommodation demands for the city's festivals and sporting events.

"We've been able to place the first lot of workers for the project," she said.

"This is about making sure our leisure market [can cope]."

Ms Marshall said the initial placements had provided flow-on effects for the towns.

She said the crew at Millthorpe were creating income for the Millthorpe corner store which was providing their crib pack lunches each day.

"Everybody is getting an uplift from that," she said.

Ms Marshall said the trial had allowed increased co-ordination with Cadia to ease demands on Orange accommodation.

That had included Newcrest rescheduling some planned maintenance shutdowns over the next two years to avoid clashes with Orange events including last month's A Day on the Green concert.

LOCATION: CADIA MINE

She said they had identified other potential accommodation clashes including the first weekend of FOOD Week (March 27-29), the Bathurst 1000 (October 8-11), the National Field Days at Borenore (October 22-24) and the last two weeks of October when the Orange Wine Festival was on.

The next step of the trial will see about 20 workers placed in Blayney for two months from March. It has become a venue preferred by the mine's shutdown contractor teams.

Orange360 will also be talking to accommodation providers in Canowindra, Cowra and Bathurst about housing workers when the peak arrives later this year.

The trial began with a series of forums in Orange and other towns last December where accommodation providers were given details of what was required by them.

A Newcrest spokeswoman said the Cadia mine was on track for the peak number of extra workers to start during the last three months of the year.

Last October Newcrest announced the $685 million expansion including the development of a mining area known as PC 2-3, materials handling system upgrades, associated infrastructure and the initial works to increase the plant capacity.