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A park at Dubbo popular for weddings will soon offer visitors all its wonders without the need for them to suffer wet feet as they enter.
Works begun this week at the Dubbo Regional Botanic Garden are intended to improve stormwater drainage along its internal access road.
Dubbo City Council put big machinery into action at the front of the Sensory Garden and Shoyoen yesterday as part of its plan to freshen up the entrance to Elizabeth Park.
About $10,000 has been allowed for road grading costs and about $20,000 for a new planting of an avenue of trees.
Council horticultural services manager Ian McAlister said the open swales - low tracts of land - would be reshaped.
"When it rains at the moment water pools and remains in the swales, making it difficult for visitors to access the gardens," Mr McAlister said.
"The regrading of the swales and the installation of culverts in front of the main entrances will significantly improve pedestrian access from the parking area to the gardens."
Mr McAlister said the works were included in this year's budget in an attempt to "get people across without wet feet" or "spoiling the frock".
"It's a popular place for weddings, especially during spring, there's (at least one) almost every weekend," he said.
The attraction in Dubbo's east will also receive 30 new trees, replacing those removed in August.
Elizabeth Park's avenue of trees was exposed to hot westerly winds in summer and experienced water logging in winter, and a number of the original trees had died, Mr McAlister said.
"Once the grading of the internal access road is complete, council will plant a new avenue of trees with Ficus microcarpa 'hillii' or hills fig, a tree more conducive to the Dubbo climate," he said.
"The new trees are already 6.5 metres in height and so once they are planted they will have an immediate aesthetic impact at Elizabeth Park."
The manager said council had taken the opportunity to purchase the trees at a reduced price, available because City of Sydney Council, which had ordered them for Hyde Park, did not go ahead with the purchase.