The Vailele Moreton Bay Fig

This fig was dated by photograph. Hunter's Hill Council's tree register found what appears to be a small fig near this spot in pictures from about 1913, then a full-grown specimen in 1943 aerial survey imagery, and concluded that it would support a planting date of around 1900. That is one council reading two photographs, and it is the only source we have found on this tree at all, so treat the age as a reasonable inference rather than a record. If somebody has a better one, we want it. The rest of the assessment is easier to check by standing in front of it. Seventeen metres tall, a canopy eighteen metres across, and a health rating that calls it an excellent example of the species. It grows on the Gale Street verge in Woolwich, on council land beside the side entrance of Vailele, a sandstone Federation house of about 1892; the register describes the tree as an important remnant planting associated with the house. The verge is public, so this one can be reached from the footpath at any hour. Most people will see it from the water first. The register notes how visible it is from the Lane Cove River, and the best way here is the F3 ferry from Circular Quay to Woolwich Wharf, twenty-three minutes, then a walk up from the foreshore. Do not confuse it with the two forest red gums further along the same street.