It was only for the weekend, but more than 20 of the Melbourne-based people were invited to stay in the homes of Border Refugee Asylum Seeker Support group members.

In a letter to the group, co-ordinator Kay Hampton said the home stay weekend was full of positive conversations and ended with emotional farewells to new friends.

“I think we can say we carried off this weekend beautifully and achieved what we intended,” she said.

“Feedback from our guests were that they had a wonderful time, loved staying with their individual hosts and felt they had made new, very-special friends who cared about them and refugees in general."

The group was shown around the highlights of the region and attended a big dinner put on by all the families to celebrate.

Part of the inspiration for the Beechworth refugee home stay weekend was to contradict some of the negative language around asylum seekers in political discussion.

Indigo councillor and former Greens Indi candidate Jenny O’Connor was one of the hosts involved in the weekend.

“They were young people from Iraq, Iran, Sri Lanka and with stories that break your heart,” she said.

“We are planning more of these events and encourage other communities to do the same.

“Let’s show our politicians that we are so much better than they represent us to be.”

Albury Wodonga Food Share provided ingredients for gourmet meals created over the weekend and the trip was also supported by the Beechworth Senior Citizens Club and North East Multicultural Association covered all the visitors’ travel costs.

Many of the visiting refugees were on restrictive visas, which had made it difficult to earn money and travel long distances around the country.

BRASS was set up as a small group, run out of Beechworth, to provide a point of contact for practical support of asylum seekers in Australia.

Ms Hampton said BRASS was already looking to plan the next refugee weekend to promote the region.

“The success of the weekend has generated a huge interest in offering something for refugees in the future,” she said.

“One thought that was taking shape was the possibility of a ‘pop-up weekend restaurant’, whereby refugees would demonstrate the preparation of their traditional foods and we, the poor general public, would have to sample them all.”