For the past 10 weeks Rotary Benalla members have been busy recreating the garden’s fencing and gates.
Due to the area being heritage listed the work has been progressed within strict guidelines.
Rotarian Neil Smith, who led the project, said the club had hoped to install the fencing and gates during the weekend — however unforseen circumstances have pushed the installation back a couple of weeks.
‘‘The fences over at the botanical gardens have been ruined over time,’’ Mr Smith said.
‘‘The damage is mainly because they were in the ground too long and have rotted out. So Benalla Rural City Council came to the Friends of the Gardens to look into replacing them.
‘‘They spoke to Rotary and we decided that this is one we could take on as a project.
‘‘As it is a heritage-listed area we had to match what was there in terms of colour and materials. Heritage Victoria are very strict on what can be done.’’
The project has taken about 10 weeks, which Neil said has been largely because of waiting on Heritage Victoria to sign off on the plans.
‘‘Heritage Victoria’s usual time for things like this can be anything from six to eight weeks,’’ he said.
‘‘But that has allowed us to do a thorough job, and I would say we’ve put well over 40 to 50 hours into the project so far.’’
With the hard work now completed the next stage will be installing the new fencing and gates.
The Ensign will update the public as and when that is due to happen.