Old Albert

Old Albert is twice as wide as it is tall. The crown of this Moreton Bay Fig averages 42 metres across, on readings of 44 by 40, over a tree standing 21.5 metres high. It went into Windsor Reserve in 1883, grown from a seedling raised by way of Albert Park in the city centre across the harbour, which is where the name comes from. That puts it at about 143 years old, in a band the register gives as 140 to 145. The form is unusual for the species. Three stems rather than one trunk, a curtain of aerial roots, and almost none of the heavy buttressing Moreton Bay figs are known for elsewhere. Devonport calls it an Australian banyan, and standing under the canopy you can see why. The girth is 1087 centimetres at a metre up, measured with the aerial roots left out, which is the honest way to do it on a tree like this. It has spent its whole life at the point where Devonport meets the water, a few minutes from the wharf, and the town has grown up around it rather than the other way round. Auckland Council carries it as a registered notable tree and arborists maintain it on that basis; the last field observation on the register found it present and in good health. The ferry from downtown lands eight minutes' walk away. Few trees this size are this easy to reach.