Please note the
numbers refer to locations on the area map
1. The name "Fig Tree
Pocket" developed as a local name for what was originally
part of Indooroopilly. By the late 1860's Fig Tree Pocket Road
already existed in its present configuration, ending at a Reserve
at the tip of the pocket. There is some suggestion that the road
was originally "Fig Tree" Road, the road to a particular
fig tree. What is certain is that there was a massive fig
tree in the Reserve that now exists at the end of Fig Tree Pocket
Road and that the reserve was created because of it.
Queensland was opened to free
settlers in 1842. In 1862 the Surveyor-General instructed H.C.
Rawnsley to survey the pocket into farms of 15 to 30 acres. While
this was being done, the following letter (dated 14th June 1866)
was sent from A.V. Herbert at the Dep't of Lands and Works to the
Surveyor-General:
Sir ,
I have been desired to request
you to be good enough to reserve the land situated about halfway
between Oxley Creek and the 17 Mile Rocks on the left bank of
the Brisbane river and upon which a remarkable Fig Tree stands
of which a photograph is enclosed - it is assumed that there
will be no difficulty in recognising the spot
and if the surveys are sufficiently forward you are to be good
enough to send this office a tracing showing the Same area
reserved.
(State Archives Location No.:SUR/A
2281 ; Surveyor-General: In Letters)
On the side of Herbert's letter is
an annotation that simply states: "Rawnsley instructed
18-6-66". On 13th August, 1866 Rawnsley submitted the plans.
The Reserve is included. Of particular interest, however, is
the fact that while numerous trees are located on the plans by
simple means of a letter of the alphabet, a fig tree in the
Reserve is sketched in as a rough circle and labelled (indicating
that it was of some considerable size and particularly
noteworthy). If you study the accompanying copies of sections of
the original plans, you will see the tree sketched in and labelled
"Fig Tree".
The said photo of the tree is
reproduced on the poster. Notice how the man in the photo is
dwarfed by the buttresses. Professor Clifford of the Botany
Department at Queensland University estimates that the tree would
have been a massive 50 metres tall. Henry Clarkson recalls his
mother's anecdotes about the tree and how she played amongst the
buttresses. Apparently a dray could be hidden between them and a
herd of cattle could shelter under its branches.
It is assumed that the tree died
when surrounding scrub was cleared, although some stories indicate
that a local grass fire may have hastened its demise. Other
stories blame the floods of the 1890's while yet others say that
the excavation of sand from the area undermined the tree. A letter
dated 29 June, 1892 and sent to the Commissioner of Crown Lands
complains of the amount of sand being removed from the area . In
fact, the Reserve was not gazetted until 1892 (apparently in
response to the said letter).
The Mandalay Progress Association
has chosen as its chief Bicentennial activity to plant a fig tree
in the Reserve to commemorate the original tree. The precise
location of that original "remarkable fig tree" (as
determined by student surveyors from the Q.I.T. as an exercise was
revealed at the Cel-arbor-ation.
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