By Geoff Holloway
Moreton Bay Fig (Ficus macrophylla), a native to eastern Australia, from the Wide Bay–Burnett region in the north to the Illawarra in New South Wales. It is best known for its imposing buttress roots and large canopy. In the rainforest it is often the strangler fig because seed germination usually takes place in the canopy of a host tree, where the seedling lives as an epiphyte until its roots establish contact with the ground, when it enlarges and strangles its host.
It is an evergreen tree that can reach heights of 50 m, the trunk can be massive, with thick, prominent buttressing, rough bark is grey-brown, glossy green leaves and fruit which attracts birds and bats. The Champion Moreton Bay Fig in the National Register of Big Trees is 50m high with a 48m wide canopy. This particular Ficus species is now growing in many areas of Australia and overseas as a fast growing, long lived, attractive shade tree.
The Morten Bay Fig tree photos are on Limestone Hill in Ipswich Qld where the explorer/botanist Allan Cunningham camped under these same trees in 1828 and from where he spotted a gap in the Great Dividing Range which of course is named Cunningham’s Gap on the Cunningham Highway.
The soft light timber has a wavy texture and tends to be twisted and curved. This means there is a lot of stress within the wood, which can produce checking, splitting, and curvature when the wood is dried. It also means the wood may be unpredictable while being worked. It is not a sought-after timber, which is the reason so many trees have been left standing with many living for 200 + years in their natural environment.
