Spending cuts in the ACT budget have not extended to the National Arboretum Canberra which has been allocated almost $5 million for water security and carpark works.
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The water security works - expected to be finished in mid-2017 - are designed to stop the practice of water being trucked in to keep alive the forests.
It now brings the total expenditure on the arboretum to more than $70 million and provides for a staff of 12.5 full-time equivalent employees at the facility.
The government has also introduced a new benchmark for the arboretum, seeking to have 85 per cent visitor satisfaction at the facility in 2013-14.
The government earlier this year introduced 24-hour paid parking at the arboretum, with all fees collected being pumped back into the site.
A statement from Territory and Municipal Services this week said just over $47,000 had been collected from pay parking machines at the arboretum in the two months to May 24.
The $4.756 million allocated in this week's budget is more than 100 times the amount of money collected so far from the parking machines
The budget provided $3.956 million to design, construct and operate the final stages of the arboretum's irrigation master plan, including the employment of a full-time staff member to run the system.
Another $700,000 was allocated to seal the carpark and install lighting and a further $100,000 to improve stormwater drainage across the site.
The TAMS spokeswoman said the new irrigation system would "ensure the arboretum's rare and endangered trees have the best chance of survival".
It also removed "any reliance on potable water and use of trucks to fill water tanks".
The arboretum's 48,000 trees are to date spread over 94 forests on a 250-hectare site.
"This large area, combined with Canberra's harsh weather, mean there is significant irrigation requirements," TAMS said.
The arboretum has a 40 megalitre dam, a bore which feeds a 1.6 megalitre tank on Dairy Farmers Hill and give 120 kilolitre tanks. Those facilities watered 34 forests, the amphitheatre and the events terrace.
"The budget funding will allow the necessary new bore, filtration systems, pumps and water supply network to be installed to the remaining forests which are currently irrigated from small above-ground tanks filled by water trucks. Work will be carried out in stages and is expected to be completed by June 2017.
"As well as assuring the security of the arboretum's water supply, this irrigation work will also result in future savings by no longer requiring, on certain occasions, for some of the water to be drawn from the Murrumbidgee River."
TAMS also said the indicator of 85 per cent visitor satisfaction with the arboretum was "an initial benchmark and will be reviewed as part of the ACT Government's annual budget process based on results".
