Three months ago, 19-year-old Anastasiia Kulchak was living an ordinary life.
She was studying at university, working for a small IT company and spending her weekends with friends and family.
"Our life was awesome and we never had any problems," she said.
However, when the airport in her hometown Ivano-Frankivsk was bombed on the first day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, her family was forced to leave the life they knew behind.
"We decided that it's unsafe to stay in our apartment and home so we moved to mum's parents' village for a month," Anastasiia said.
Anastasiia has three siblings, seven-year-old twins Zlata and Kostiantyn and 16-year-old Anna.
The four siblings and their mum have now ended up living in a small rural town in the NSW Snowy Mountains called Cooma.
"When we said to the kids that we are going to move somewhere else, they didn't know what Australia was," she said.
The family had to leave their father, Vasyl, behind as all men are required to fight for Ukraine.
"Every day we are hoping to get a message from him that everything's fine," Anastasiia said.
"So, that's the worst part of it, to split the family.
"We left our cousins, my grandparents and all our family there so it's very upsetting."
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According to the Department of Home Affairs, almost 3,000 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Australia since the war began.
But adjusting to a new life can be difficult, as Anastasiia's family has experienced.
They are living with their friend Victoria Elgey, a Ukrainian-Australian from Cooma.
"When I knew that they were coming I was super excited that I could help this family," Ms Elgey said.
"Just to take them [out of] the war zone and to help them be in a safe country."
The family of five arrived in Australia on tourist visas before transitioning onto humanitarian bridging visas, which have given them more opportunities.
Anastasiia's three younger siblings are now able to attend school locally but there are still challenges ahead.
"The health question is the hardest for us now," she said.
"We're supposed to pay almost $2,000 for a health examination for the family."
For a family that arrived with "basically nothing", Ms Elgey believes it's a lot to ask.
"They have applied for Centrelink and have stated what they own, which is virtually nothing," she said.
The family has to undergo medical examinations before they are granted Temporary Humanitarian Concern visas, which will allow them to stay for up to three years.
The medical examination includes an X-ray, an eye test, checking blood pressure and other basic health checks and is used for data collecting by the federal government.
Adama Kamara, the deputy chief executive of the Refugee Council of Australia, said they did not have access to Medicare on a bridging visa to cover those examination costs.
"The challenge with that particular visa is that they're not eligible for Medicare," she said.
Ms Kamara is hopeful that the recent change in government could see changes made to refugee policies to help families like Anastasiia's.
"We're going to continue our engagement with the new government to ensure that refugee policies are fairer," she said.
"And the situation faced by Ukrainians is something that we will continue to lobby for."
A spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs said it "is progressing visa applications from Ukrainian nationals as a priority".
"[We have] processes in place to ensure that individuals can progress to a Temporary Humanitarian Concern visa (subclass 786) as quickly as possible," they said.
"Over 2,200 people have been granted a subclass 449 visa in preparation for subclass 786 visa grant, following health checks.
"Fifteen Ukrainians have been granted a subclass 786 visa."
