AFTER a six-year wade through council paperwork and resident complaints, it's the garden they've all been waiting for.
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The first spade pierced the ground of Bunya Park for the Warners Bay Community Garden on Saturday.
What began as a group of 26 residents gathered by a letterbox drop is now 350-strong, and keen to be involved in the first part of phase one of the project.
Two years after the initial expressions of interest, Lake Macquarie City Council invited the group to lodge a development application, and then another in early 2012. It was close to the end of 2012 when the application was finally granted, with a significantly reduced first stage.
Being a group of volunteers made the process even longer.
"There's a lot of work that needs to go into a DA," convener Steve Taylor said. "Now it's probably the most over-engineered community garden in Australia."
He said the first phase of construction would be setting up a fence to trap silt and prevent run-off into South Creek. After the fencing, garden bed construction and other basic development, people will be free to learn to garden, socialise and build community connections.
The group has spent little of the $52,000 it received from the state government in 2010, so it will have plenty of funding for the future.
Mr Taylor said they were "over the moon" that they'd been able to start the garden.
■ To learn more about the garden visit warnersbaycommunitygarden.org.