City hall ticked off one touchy project yesterday and then launched another.

The controversial replacement for the showground’s heritage grandstand was sufficiently finished yesterday to warrant an official visit by Mayor Allan Smith and Dubbo City Council general manager Mark Riley.

Soon after they were on their way to Elizabeth Park for a sod-turning ceremony on the site of the city’s sensory garden where future visitors will see, hear, smell, touch and even taste its features.

Mayor Smith, who wielded a pristine and shiny spade, said the garden had been made possible by a federal grant of $458,000, supplemented by almost $19,000 from council coffers.

He was not forthcoming on the specific cost of the pavilion, built in honour of the old grandstand that was vicariously regarded by the community as an eyesore and a treasure in the years leading up to its demolition.

Late last year David Payne Constructions won the contract to remove asbestos from the storm-damaged and crumbling grandstand, pull it down and build the new pavilion, using when able grandstand materials considered recyclable.

“All up ... it was $218,000, “ Cr Smith said. The mayor envisages that renting out the pavilion for the likes of wedding photography, band performances and cocktail parties will help pull back the showground’s annual deficit of about $200,000. Panels featuring imagery and writing are yet to be installed, but the mayor is already chuffed at the end result.

“It’s come up a treat. It actually reflects very well what used to be here,” he said.

“But at the same time gives a new feel for this area.”

The sensory garden, along with the biodiversity and Shoyoen Gardens, are part of the emerging Elizabeth Park Regional Botanic Garden, on the corner of Birch Avenue and Windsor Parade.

About 20 Western Institute of TAFE horticultural students will help build the sensory garden that will include wetlands, ponds and interactive fountains, garden walls, seating, walkways, wind chimes and almost 100 different varieties of plants in a range of colours, textures and shapes. They include wormwood, lemon myrtle, the curry plant, winter rose and Japanese blood grass.

The full of list of the plants are:

Cootamundra Wattle

Weeping Maple

Fern Leaf Maple

Japanese windflower

Ajuga Jungle beauty or Cailtlins giantBugle

Pink Silk Tree

Lemon scented verbena

Kangaroo paw

Columbine

Wormwood

African Daisy

Birds nest fern

Lemon Myrtle

Banksia ‘Birthday Candles’

Arrow leaf bamboo

Old Man Banksia

Bromeliad

Brachycome daisy

Queensland Bottle Tree

Bubbleja

Box Hedge

Marigold

Mexican Orange Blossom

Meyer Lemon

Kaffir lily hybrid

Lemon Scented Gum

Convolvulus species

Karo Red

Cordyline sp.

Lemongrass

Lemon Scented Myrtle

Purple Hop Bush

Lavendar Grass

Escallonia

Bush blue gum

Blue Fescue

Cumquat

Freesia

Gardenia

Honey Locust Lime Green

Curry Plant

Yellow Buttons

Winter rose

Native Frangipani

Japanese blood grass

Impatiens

Bearded iris

Red Hot poker

French Lavendar

Crepe Myrtle

Variegated liriope/mondo

Tea tree species

Apple sp.

Peppermint

Broad Leafed Paperbark

Common Mint

Magnolia Little Gem

Port wine Magnolia

Weeping Mulberry

Myoporum

Sacred bamboo

Catmint

Olive sp.

Black Mondo Grass

Flax hybrid

Variegated Lemon scented

Geranium

Chinese pistachio

Pittosporum Emerald Star

Silver Sheen

Radiata Pine

Plumbago white

Pomegranate

Indian hawthorn

Banksia Rose

Rose sp

Rosemary

Rose sp

Mexican sage

Salvia sp

Chinese Tallow Wood

Lambs ears

Lilly Pilly

Star jasmine ground cover

Verbena species

Seasonal vegetables

Violets

Vinca

Wisteria

Wollemi Pine

Grass tree

Flamboyant

Golden Trumpet Tree