The Fig Tree of Haig Road

On a street corner in Milton, a Hill's fig has stood as physical evidence of Brisbane's push to plant its footpaths, more than a century after most of that program's other trees came down. Brisbane's own heritage register calls it a survivor of a citywide street tree planting drive from the late 1800s, which would put this fig somewhere between 100 and 150 years old today; the register's own paraphrases disagree on whether to call it 'at least 100' or 'at least 120', so we are carrying the wider range rather than picking a number that sounds more precise than the source is. It shares its stretch of Milton with Milton State School, opened in 1889 next door, which has several large figs of its own inside the school grounds, not open to passers-by. This one is different: it stands on the road reserve itself, at the corner of Haig Road and Bayswater Road, free to walk up to any time, three or four minutes from Milton station. Brisbane listed it as a Local Heritage Place in 2002. No second source has turned up yet describing this specific tree, unusual for something with its own heritage listing; if you know more about it, we would like to hear it.