Fig mystery: who planted the Burke and Wills tree?

ONGOING efforts to rehabilitate Swan Hill’s famous Moreton Bay Fig tree suggest its future may be as uncertain as its origins. 

Extensive rehabilitation efforts have been undertaken to save the Moreton Bay Fig, thought to be the largest in Victoria, by Swan Hill Rural City Council and the National Trust Significant Trees Committee since 2009.

While the tree has made a recovery from its dire condition three years ago, council said a lack of foliage has continued to result in the branches suffering from sun-strike, and fungi on upper branches has also reduced the tree’s ability to recover.

The Curlewis Street tree, known as the ‘Burke and Wills tree’, measures 27 metres high, with a branch spread of 44 metres, a butt measurement of nine metres, an above ground root spread of nearly 14 metres and a trunk diameter of 3.6 metres. 

Although its name suggests that the tree is associated with the expedition of Burke and Wills, and was planted in 1860 to commemorate the explorers’ expedition, there are a number of theories that have been espoused as to its origin. 

In April 1953 The Guardian ran a series of articles and letters speculating its history, and in February 1986 the debate was re-kindled following a proposal to build a hotel on the area adjacent to the tree. 

The Burton family believes the fig tree was bought as a seedling to be planted on the grave of Zacariah Burton in 1860, one of Swan Hill’s early settlers.

For more of this story, see Wednesday’s Guardian (May 1).