Orange City Council hosted its first Welcome to Orange lunch for the year on Sunday.
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Families and couples from across Australia and abroad attended the welcome event at the Orange Ex-Services' Club where they had a chance to meet other new and existing residents and learn more about the town.
Several of the new residents have moved around before and said meeting new people was one of the greatest challenges when it came to relocating.
Adele and Wayne Carrington moved down from the Sunshine Coast for Mr Carrington's work at Remote Control Technologies and said Orange was the first place they moved to where there has been an event where they could meet other newcomers and get a run down about the community.
The couple moved to Orange five weeks ago and said they also have elderly family who bought property in Cowra.
"It's like being in a Sydney suburb where you've got everything [you need] minus the traffic," Mrs Carrington said.
"We've actually moved around Australia in the last 20 years and this is the only place that's had something like this."
Like many people moving to the area or plan to, they said getting accommodation was an issue.
She said they knew they were moving since April last year and they watched the rents go up by about $150 a week but the same thing was happening on the Sunshine Coast.
"We didn't have difficulty getting a place but there was hardly anything to look at and were were really worried," Mrs Carrington said.
Sue Klose works from and was originally from Chicago but moved to Orange from Sydney after exploring regional NSW through house sitting and said Orange was her favourite location.
She said she started looking more than a year ago and when it came to accommodation, "when you see a place grab it," and said she was fortunate to find a home just as lock down finished.
Since moving here she joined the Orange Runners Club where she met fellow new residents Angela and Michael Kauter who were originally from Geelong and moved to Blayney but recently moved to Orange.
Kushumita and Anup Gurung came to Orange from Nepal via Sydney and Sheetal Kumari came from India with her two children after her husband Pramod Singh started working for Nestle in Blayney.
They all said Orange had been very welcoming since their arrival and Mrs Gurung said she took part in recent adult swimming lessons hosted by the Orange Migrant Support service.
Mrs Kumari, who arrived a month ago said she liked the weather and Cook Park and she has met many new people and joined in the Harmony Day celebration.
Mayor Jason Hamling said the event is a great way to connect with other new residents and find out more about the city.
"Moving to a new city can be daunting and this is an excellent opportunity to learn what our community has to offer," Cr Hamling said.
"Some people might not have been able to make those important social connections due to the various restrictions we've had to live with over the past couple of years.
"It's a great chance to speak with other people who have moved to the area about their experiences, as well as learn from the locals."
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Tanya Marschke
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
