The oldest and largest productive cork tree in the world is the "Whistler Tree", so called because of the numerous songbirds that occupy it.

It was planted in 1783 near the town of Åguas de Moura in the Alentejo region of Portugal. It was five years old when the first English settlers arrived in Australia and six years old when the French Revolution began in 1789.

Bottles of wine sealed with cork in that same year, 1789, were discovered 40 years ago in a French cellar, with both the wines and corks in good condition - proof of the long life and superb sealing abilities of natural cork.

Stripping the bark from the Whistler Tree in June 2000 took a team of five men almost four hours.

The Whistler Tree is more than 14 metres (45 feet) high and 4.15 metres (nearly 15 feet) in circumference. It was first harvested in 1820, and since then it has been harvested another 20 times.

The 1991 harvest produced 1200 kilograms of bark - more than most trees yield in a lifetime. This single harvest was enough for more than 100,000 wine corks. The latest harvest, in June 2000, was less productive but it still produced an impressive 650 kilograms, 10 times the yield of an average cork tree.

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