'Terrifying childhood': Escape from Iraq leads to new life in Warrnambool

"You can breathe the freedom," he said.

"Wonderful life here. Safe. Good future. Beautiful nature. Kind people. Very friendly. Everybody wish good things for you. The people love to help you."

His family's new life in Australia - "a country of freedom" - stands in stark contrast to his "terrible life" in the Middle East.

When Salah, his wife Rita and their three children - Mirna, 15, Jayms, 12, and Jonathan, 6 - landed in Melbourne on July 27, 2023, it was a new beginning for the family who was forced to flee their burning home which had been set alight by ISIS forces.

Those who came to greet the family brought with them a large sign that Warrnambool schoolchildren had made, written in their native language welcoming them to the city.

For Rita, the words were like a big hug. For Salah, the sign - which he still has - was something he said he would always cherish.

Their journey to safety in Warrnambool has been a long one.

The horrors of wars that drove the family out of their home country are still very much etched in Salah's mind.

"I had a terrifying childhood," he said.

Born in 1980, Iraq and Iran were already at war. And then in 1990 came the first Gulf War.

"When I go to school I remember the war between Iraq and Iran because every day they bring the dead people from the battlefront," he said.

"Some people they lose heads, arms legs, bodies in two pieces.

"I still remember. Very, very horrible."

His memories as a 10-year-old are vivid - aircraft hunting military target and the explosions that would follow.

"The aircraft were everywhere," he said.

"Oil wells were burning. It was winter. Black rain. Scary."

There was no water, no electricity and no bread.

But it was after the second Gulf War about 10 years ago that he, his wife and children were forced to flee.

"ISIS came and destroyed everything," he said.

They tried to forced them to convert to Islam.

"And we said 'no'. That will not happen, never," Salah said.

The family is part of a minority Christian group that speak Aramaic - the language of Jesus - which makes them a target.

Banned under Saddam Hussein's regime, parents would speak Aramaic to their children in secret to keep the language alive.

As part of the final ultimatum, the family was also told they would have to pay taxes to the Islamic State.

"They started bombing our village and many people were killed. The children, women. Many, many people killed," Salah said.

"Many people were killed by sword. Terrible.

"We decide to leave Iraq."

The couple - along with two of their children who were just toddlers at the time - fled first to northern Iraq.

They used the gold jewellery Rita had kept with her to buy plane tickets to Beirut where they ended up in a refugee camp.

Salah recalled how the road to the airport was filled with refugees - the two-hour trip to the airport taking 12 hours.

At first, the family had to live in refugee tents.

In Iraq, Salah had worked as a supervisor for an electric company but in Lebanon he could only get work in a pizza place, supermarket or doing doing back-breaking work as a labourer at the wharf.

"Lebanon is a very difficult life," he said.

The family's application with the United Nations to seek safety in another country was rejected eight times, until they were finally given humanitarian visas to Australia.

Salah now hopes to sponsor their families to come to Australia.

The family came to Warrnambool under the new government-run Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot (CRISP).

Warrnambool's Katherine Stewart is one of a group of about 10 people who have partnered in the project through agency Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia.

One household at a time, they hope to give refugees a better life here in Warrnambool.

"It's a privilege for us to be part of it, meeting people who have been through some stuff we can't even imagine," Katherine said.

The CRISP program involves fundraising enough money to support the household when they first arrive, and then helping them navigate life in Australia over the next 12 months.

The Catholic Church-based group that brought the family to Warrnambool were able to use a vacant presbytery to house them, and parishioners donated all the furniture.

The couple have spent the past year learning English, and settling into life in Warrnambool.

Salah has a job at a Warrnambool pizza shop, and Rita has started doing some cleaning.

But his dream is to one day join the police force, and Rita would like to work in the disability or aged-care sector.