MURDO Macleod knows first hand how amazing the Australian way of life looks through foreign eyes.
In 1985 he immigrated from Scotland after visiting on a tourist visa and falling in love with the "Australian ethos".
"I loved the attitude of 'she'll be right'," Mr Macleod said in his lingering Scottish brogue. "I thought it was a culture that was very similar to the Scottish culture I left."
The Hunter Business Lions Club member is now hoping to welcome new arrivals to Newcastle.
Two months ago, Macleod and 13 other volunteers formed a refugee support group, Newcastle CRISP.
The Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot (CRISP) is a federal government-supported program launched in 2022 that provides practical support to refugee families from local volunteers for up to 12 months.
Since June 2022, CRISP has helped 584 refugees from 15 countries to settle in 136 households nationally.
This support has covered everything from navigating government services such as Centrelink and MyGov, school enrolments, accommodation, health, driving lessons and English lessons, or simply being a friendly face for people who have limited contacts as they acclimatise to living in Australia.
"It's a program where you want it to expand outwards and engage others through family friends, work mates etc," Mr Macleod said.
"The idea ultimately is you're helping someone who is trying to get away from pretty horrendous circumstances, whichever country they're in.
"CRISP refugees have been drawn from all over - Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Sadly there's no shortage of people and families in crisis."
In 2022, Cessnock created one of Australia's first CRISP groups, when four couples accepted the Assars, a Syrian family of five, who had been living long-term in a refugee camp in Lebanon.
As part of the program, Cessnock CRISP needed to fund raise $15,000 before the family's arrival. Later their support included picking the family up from Sydney Airport and finding them rental accommodation and furniture, setting up bank accounts and English language classes and helping to enrol the children in school.
The group's 12-month term finished in September last year, but Cessnock CRISP member Peter Torenbeek said the bonds forged in the program had continued and they regularly caught up for barbecues, coffee dates and to maintain ongoing support.
"We had a lovely night with them all the other week," Mr Torenbeek said. "They're becoming English speakers and the kids are doing super at school and acting like interpreters now for their parents."
The Assar family have also welcomed a fourth child, Ali, who was born earlier this year, and have fostered relationships with other Muslim communities in the Hunter.
Mr Torenbeek said getting to know and assist the Assar family had been a "tremendously rewarding" process, "particularly to see the kids grow up."
"The oldest girl plays soccer in town and she loves it," he said. "The other girl is rather artistic and the little bloke is a tough little nut and looks like a Lebanese wrestler. He's a good little guy and he'd never seen Lego before and now he's into making things."
Newcastle CRISP hope to follow Cessnock's lead and be allocated their first refugee family by December. In order to achieve that goal, they've targeted fund-raising $12,000.
Despite Australia's long history as a multicultural country built on migrants, refugees and immigration remain divisive political topics. A recent example is Liberal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton's call to ban all immigration from Gaza until the current conflict with Israel has resolved.
Mr Macleod argued that "generic fear" about refugees was stoked for political gain and that these families deserved our help.
"In every case I've spoken to, once the family is here and introduced you see that they're humans, people just like us," he said. "They're children with the same smiles and same love of sweets and play.
"The othering that happens in politics is for political expedience.
"These people are desperate to be a part of a stable community and they're not looking to recreate their own community."
On Sunday from 3pm to 7pm Hamilton brewpub Good Folk will host the Newy Crisp trivia fundraiser. New volunteers wanting to join Newcastle CRISP are welcome.
