Fig trees create an island of illusion
8 September 1997It was the stuff of hallucination for unsuspecting Sunday seafarers. A fig-tree-laden island motoring two kilometres offshore along the NSW coast, through the Heads and up the Parramatta River, making a good 100 nautical miles a day.
Without doubt the most valuable landscape specimens ever to make their way into Sydney Harbour at $25,500 a pop, the first of the Olympic Plaza's shade trees were yesterday delivered to Homebush.
"The trees will be the focus of worldwide attention during the 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games," project director, infrastructure, for the Olympic Co-ordination Authority, Mr Tim Bell, said.
The ficus hillii, standing between seven and 11 metres tall, were strapped upright to individual steel frames to protect them during the four-day, 400 nautical mile (750km) trip from Howards' Tree Farm at Wooyung Beach, near Brunswick Heads, where they have been growing for the past 10-15 years.
In all, 90 of the trees will be transplanted to form a double avenue on the eastern side of the Olympic Stadium in time for the Royal Easter Show at the new Showground in April. Their dense canopy will shade the primary bussing point in Olympic Plaza.
Mr Bell said this fig species - which is smaller than the Moreton Bay Fig - was "commonly used and very much identified with Sydney Harbour's foreshores" - with plantings at The Rocks, Millers Point and Darling Harbour.
Too large to travel by road, 79 of the trees will be transferred to Sydney about eight at a time by barge in the next seven weeks. Eleven will make the trip by road.
During the ocean voyages, a remote-control sprinkler system, supervised by an on-board horticulturalist, will pump 5000 litres of fresh water to the figs.
Yesterday, the trees were tilted while the barge passed under the Ryde Bridge, and today they will be transferred to a storage compound adjacent to Olympic Park, where they will be kept until they are moved to their permanent home.
Large Moreton Bay figs already line stock routes on the Homebush abattoirs site, which is being re-developed for the Olympics.
