At the time, Griffith City Council had voted to provide 'in-principle' support of the rose garden with a planned spend of $600,000. As much as some people might spend on a house.

News of the council's decision was not well received in the community, and you really couldn't blame them.

We editorialised that there were many different alternatives which could add more value to our city, from improving approaches, to investing in our villages, road maintenance or even putting it towards a solution for Lake Wyangan.

In the two years since, council has placed new signs at Griffith's entrances and together with the federal government, a huge spend is planned for a project aimed at revitalising the lake.

Since the idea was first reported in these pages that council would investigate plans for a rose garden in 2017 - progress on the project has been incredibly stubborn.

Earlier this year a group of committed residents began a campaign to build a purpose-built art gallery for Griffith, on the site of the former bowling green.

There is merit to the idea and it would bring substantial benefits to help with the costs of building and running it, as well as being chance to showcase the city's cultural diversity.

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It's this campaign which has helped shift the agenda on the rose garden and it's a classic example of democracy in action.

Councillors who backed the end of the rose garden project have read the tea leaves and seen an opportunity, but more than that - they listened to the community's views on where the community's money should be spent.

People stood up to have an opinion and prosecuted their argument, and they've achieved progress in freeing up the former bowling greens from a lackluster project.

For the steering committee driving a new art gallery, they've taken the first step to free up their preferred location, now they'll need to talk about where that second step takes us.

They'll need the support of the community to help bring this project about - which would be a crowning achievement for Griffith.