A National Symbol?

Well that's how it is described by local historian, John Low.

The famous Explorers' Marked Tree near Katoomba was allegedly inscribed with their initials by the explorers Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth when they made the first crossing, by Europeans, of the Blue Mountains in 1813. There is some controversy as to whether they did actually carve their initials on the tree, but the fact that the possibility was first recorded in 1867 makes the tree a significant landmark anyway in my opinion.

Unfortunately for the last 2.5 years the tree, or rather the remaining stump, has become a national embarrassment. After a motorist ran into the sandstone podium and damaged it, the local council "took action to make the site safe, stabilise the podium and temporarily weather-proof the Tree".
(They at least put up a sign advising visitors of this).

"Temporary weather proofing" took the form of encasing it in black plastic making it look like an advertisement for a giant condom. Following lobbying by some local residents the plastic was removed in May 2013 for the Bicentennial Celebration of the Crossing of the Blue Mountains. Probably a good idea as it is advertised as a "Significant Site" on the official website.

When you consider that it took a team of convicts 6 months to build the first road across the mountains in 1814 we are now wondering how long it will take to do something with the remains of one tree stump.

If you look in LARGE you will see that of course there are no initials left. The outer layers of the trunk are long since gone.

But that's not the point. It's a National Symbol.