The Moreton Bay Fig at 138 Cranbourne Road, Frankston is a
landmark Frankston tree, one of the oldest and certainly largest
trees in the City.
It was planted no later than 1890 as a feature tree in
the grounds of what was to become the Frankston Nursery.
The tree is thus a unique reminder of one of Frankston's
earliest economic success stories, the thriving market gardens,
nurseries, cool stores and orchards that developed along
Cranbourne Road from the 1870's.
By the early 1900's the Frankston Nursery was seven acres
of glass houses and shade houses on Cranbourne Road. Not
the modern, four-lane carriageway that is there now, but
a modest country track running down to a little bridge about
where Kelman Street is today. Seven acres with a creek and
springs, maidenhair fern in the glass houses, bulbs and
ferns, slipper orchids, lavender, native heath, and seedlings.
A short stroll across the sandhills and ferny rises would
take you to Reservoir Paddock where the steam trains stopped
to fill up with water. A carefree pony ride along sandy
tracks took you to the beach.
And all of this industry and local life was watched over
by the Moreton Bay Fig. A tree planted by the first generation
of Frankston settlers, it has stood with Frankston - day
and night - for over 110 years.
1890 is a conservative planting date for the Fig. When
the Bailey family moved to the site in 1910 the Fig was
already a substantial tree.
The largest lower branch was already so enormous that
the four grown-up Bailey daughters could all rest in hammocks
swung off this one lateral!
The Fig is a large, venerable, highly visible landmark
well known to generations of Frankston people.
It speaks of a time when the intersection of Beach Street
and Cranbourne Road was little more than the meeting place
of two sandy tracks. It is visible from the Frankston General
Cemetery, where the pioneers that planted it and the generations
of men and women who worked in the surrounding glass houses
and rested beneath its abundant shade are now buried.
To come out of the bustling hub of modern Frankston in
the evening and to catch the setting sun radiant against
the flanks of this magnificent tree is a really special
experience that links us all to not just a local landmark,
but to a sense of heritage and timelessness.
In terms of actual "notables" associated with the Cranbourne
Road site we should note that: Ray Ewers, official war artist,
whose iconic bronze statues feature in the Australian War
Memorial and Anzac Avenue in Canberra (and throughout Australia
and overseas) was a grandson of Thomas and Mary Bailey who
purchased the nursery in 1910.
As is Professor Len Stevens, former dean of the Engineering
Faculty at Melbourne University (currently teaching civil
engineering principles to first and second year architecture
students at Melbourne).
Nick Stevens
Frankston Resident Kylie Shaw is angry that the Moreton Bay
fig tree (in background) was in the process of being removed.
