Following is a quote from Alick Jackomos, Remembering Aboriginal Fitzroy community.
Were on the corner of Gertrude Street and Nicholson Street and were just outside the old tram shed. Opposite theres a Moreton Bay Fig tree. Can you see it there? That big tree? In fact theres two and thats where the Aboriginal community, both before the war and when the war was on, would come and meet. As I said before, there were no organisations and there was no Advancement League. You couldnt fit into anyones house because every family only had a little room in the house. It could be three or four families in one house. So on Saturday and Sunday, and during the week, but mostly weekends, everybody would come here and sit around these Moreton Bay Fig Trees. That was our meeting place in the late thirties and forties and maybe early fifties. End quote.

Before the establishment of organisations like the Aborigines Advancement League, the main meeting and gathering places for the local Aboriginal community in Fitzroy and inner Melbourne were the parks around Fitzroy and Carlton, in particular the Carlton Gardens.

The Moreton Bay Fig tree in the South Garden, near the intersection of Nicholson and Gertrude Streets, was one such meeting and gathering place before and during the Second World War. The Moreton Bay Fig tree and surrounds has been the source of creative inspiration, featuring in the opening scenes of The Dirty Mile, a play performed by the Ilbigerri Street Theatre Company in two thousand and six.

The gardens have a continued use as a meeting and gathering place from the nineteen hundreds to the present, as well as being an important place of gathering and meeting for local Aboriginal people from the nineteen hundreds to around nineteen sixty eight. This aspect of the gardens is also associated with Pastor Doug Nicholls, who used to preach there.