Tucked away on a slight rise behind a modern house at Taylors Beach, just off the road to Soldiers Point, is an historic fig tree about 161 years old.

This signposted and heritage-listed Port Jackson fig stands on the original farm site of Captain James Alfred Banks and his remarkable wife Cecilia (nee Cromarty). Today the port suburb is known as Taylors Beach, but it was known once as Banks Farm Beach, or maybe even Banks Island, after its first European settler. Today, Taylors Beach, adjacent to Tilligerry Creek, is probably best known as the home of the nearby Port Stephens Fisheries (research) Centre.

But take the other fork in the road and visitors soon find themselves among a cluster of houses in leafy surroundings. It still seems a largely undeveloped spot, with a population of just 99, according to the 2011 census.

Master mariner Captain James Banks, reportedly born in Yarmouth, England, came to Australia in the early 1850s and married Cecilia, the third daughter of Captain William Cromarty in 1857. Mum and dad Cromarty's old farm, however, wasn't far away at Soldiers Point.

Cecilia Banks planted her fig in 1859 next to the house where she first came as a bride and where she raised nine children and worked the farm. Here, according to local history researchers, convict labour was used to grow bananas, melons, passionfruit and a variety of other produce in unpromising sandy soil for sale in the area and in Newcastle markets.

But that's only part of the story. We're told that Captain Banks had little real interest in agriculture and left the running of the farm to his extraordinary wife, Cecilia (1831- 1915). Captain Banks had a small trading vessel and most of his time was occupied with his business of shipping oyster shell to Newcastle. He dredged up shell for lime-making before sailing into Port Hunter to have it crushed and burned at the Stockton kilns for use in building.

However, he did leave his mark in a most unusual way. Sandstone was used as ballast by Captain Banks for his return voyages home to his farm site where the rock was either dumped overboard in the shallows or probably used as house foundations, or in walls. Some reminders of this colonial era can be found to this day below the low water mark at Taylors Beach.

But amid this leafy retreat from 21st century living are a few reminders of the past. According to one young local, a few traces of the actual house ruins of Banks Farm can still be found deep in bushland, if you look closely enough.

Cecilia Banks seems to have been named after her famous mother, Cecilia Cromarty, frequently described in Port Stephens memories as a resourceful lady of outstanding courage. Young Cecilia must have taken after her, proving to be every inch the hard-working, enterprising pioneer her mother was.

Her famous father, Captain William Cromarty, had arrived in Sydney as a free settler in 1822 with his wife and children arriving in 1824. William was then a pilot in Newcastle Harbour before being granted 300 acres (121ha) of northern Port Stephens land for "services rendered to the government". But he was forced to move from Booral, near Karuah, to finally exchange his grant for a long finger of land (Soldiers Point) on the southern side of the Port Stephens waterway instead.

He operated the brig 'Fame' from 1826, trading between the port and Newcastle until he drowned in 1838 trying to retrieve a boat from the surf at One Mile. He left behind his canny widow and children to carry on and to create their own pioneering legend. She died in 1862.

The Cromarty/Banks children married and their names became intertwined in the family tree of Port Stephens. This linked legacy today lives on in the host of familiar names, usually of district landmarks, like Soldiers Point, Cromarty Bay, Fame Cove, Fame Mountain, Glover's Hill, Magnus Street (in Nelson Bay) and Bob's Farm.

But how hard was life for people like bush-wife Cecilia Banks back in colonial days? Take this memory from a grandson Tom Eagleton, then 83, of Anna Bay, recorded for posterity some time ago in the publication A Short History of Anna Bay and its school .

"I've seen her kill a fat cow, cut it up and dress it as good as any butcher", he remembered.

Cecilia could also split logs better than her husband, so it was said. Her wrist was stiff and swollen from injuries suffered when her muzzle-loader (gun) exploded while shooting ducks at Anna Bay swamp.

Many Banks descendants would attend the Anna Bay School, including Tom Eagleton, his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, the school booklet recorded.

In a very old, undated Herald press clipping possibly from the 1960s, Mrs E. Upton, then 77, recalled the excellent bushcraft of her late mother. She said on one occasion her father set out to split fencing material in a bush close to the house. After jamming all his available wedges into a felled log, he still could not split it. Captain Banks was in his element at sea, but apparently at a disadvantage on land, the Herald reported. In disgust, he rode to Raymond Terrace 26 miles away (41km), where he had two giant wedges made. By the time he returned to his log, Mrs Banks had made another wooden wedge and had split the log into fencing material. Many decades later, the two wedges made at Raymond Terrace were still being used as portable anvils by one of the family descendants.

Another time, a Yankee sea captain put into port after some fresh meat. Captain Banks had trouble shooting a beast, so Mrs Banks did the job. And, between farm chores, she was also adept at robbing the hives of wild bees for honey.

The final word should go to Port Stephens family historian Denise Gaudion. She revealed there's actually another historic Banks fig tree at Taylors Beach, but this second one is hidden and much smaller, having almost died.

Meanwhile, an historic William Cromarty relic to rival his daughter's fig trees miraculously also survives at Port Stephens. It's a small, muzzle-loading cannon once intended as protection against escaped convicts.

But that's a tale for another day.

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