When the visitor drives north from Ti Tree (approximately 18 km north) they can see a prominent hill (it is 754 m above sea level and officially Australia's 635th highest mountain) on the western side of the Stuart Highway. This is Central Mount Stuart, the one significant feature closest to the geographical centre of Australia. John McDouall Stuart first sighted the hillock in his first crossing of Australia.

A plaque in the Central Mount Stuart Historical Reserve reads: 'John McDouall Stuart and William Kekwick ascended and named Mount Sturt on 23 April 1860. In fact the mountain became known as Central Mount Stuart after Stuart himself, not his mentor Sturt, and geographers no longer regard it as the true centre of Australia. Nevertheless, it retains its symbolic value.