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TAMWORTH - "Why do they pick on us?" asks Henry Tombek, a wounded look on his face.
"I can only think that it's because we're black."
Tombek is one of 25 Sudanese refugees who have settled in Tamworth, a country town set amid the parched hills of northern New South Wales.
Renowned as Australia's country music capital, it was recently voted one of the nation's friendliest towns.
But Tamworth has offered a chilly welcome to the Sudanese, who arrived about a year ago in search of work. A proposal to accept another five families as part of a resettlement scheme was rejected by the council last month by a majority of six to three.
Mayor James Treloar said locals were concerned that the Africans might be carrying diseases, that their menfolk would sexually harass white women and that they were likely to commit crime.
The three councillors who voted in favour of the refugees are to seek to have the decision overturned today at a council meeting which is likely to be one of the most keenly attended in the town's history.
Councillor Warren Woodley has lobbied his colleagues and reckons one of them may be prepared to vote in favour of accepting the Sudanese, leaving the Mayor in the uncomfortable position of wielding the casting vote.
The controversy, which has attracted accusations of racism, is likely to be replicated in other towns as Australia significantly increases the number of Africans it accepts under its humanitarian resettlement scheme.
Since the end of World War II, more than 675,000 refugees have settled in Australia but very few of them had black faces. That has changed dramatically in recent years - in 2000 Australia accepted 1700 Africans under its humanitarian program and last year the figure leapt to 7100.
Of those, the largest number came from Sudan, with others from Burundi, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
The numbers may be small but even a few black faces stand out, particularly in a country town like Tamworth, 600km north of Sydney.
It prides itself on being the Australian counterpart to Nashville. Its annual country music festival, which starts on Friday, attracts 50,000 visitors and 600 musicians.
The tourist information centre is built in the shape of a guitar and its museum documents the life and times of homegrown country singers such as Smoky Dawson and Slim Dusty.
"I'm aghast to think that after 35 years of establishing Tamworth's reputation as the country music capital of Australia, it's been tarnished by a few off-the-cuff remarks," said Max Ellis, 70, the Country Music Museum founder. "It's a distortion of what we are really like. Country music is about friendship and welcoming people."
But a man in faded shorts and a singlet who lived up the street from the Sudanese said: "You can take all these fellas and stick them in a bag and shove them in the river. They're noisy and they chase sheilas. I detest them."
Like many of the young Sudanese men, Tombek, 23, works in the local abattoir, butchering sheep and cattle - jobs which no local wants to do.
"People say we are causing trouble here but how can we cause trouble when we just go from home to work and back again?" said Tombek, who spent years as a refugee in Egypt before being accepted by Australia in 2004. He no longer ventures into Tamworth's centre after being punched in the face in what he says was an unprovoked attack.
The Reverend Ken Fenton described a local redneck element and said: "It's ridiculous - we're only talking about five families, after all."
Country music capital's unfriendly side
* Tamworth, considered Australia's country music capital, was recently voted one of the country's friendliest towns.
* Sudanese families who arrived about a year ago looking for work say they haven't received the welcome the town is famous for.
* A proposal to accept five more Sudanese families as part of a resettlement scheme was rejected by the council.
* Mayor James Treloar said locals were concerned that the Africans might be carrying diseases, that their menfolk would sexually harass white women and that they were likely to commit crime.
* The three councillors who voted in favour of the resettlement scheme are to seek to have the decision overturned today at a council meeting.
