Aboriginal peoples have lived in the area around Uluru/Ayers Rock for thousands of years, but the first Europeans did not arrive until the 1870s. An explorer named William Gosse saw the rock in 1873. He named it Ayers Rock in honor of an Australian government official. Another explorer, Ernest Giles, had seen and named the nearby Mount Olga the year before. Few Europeans moved into the area for many years after that. In 1920 part of the land was declared an Aboriginal Reserve. This was land set aside for the Aboriginal peoples to live on.
Tourists began to visit the rock in the 1930s. In 1958 the Australian government set aside the land around the rock as Ayers Rock-Mount Olga National Park. In 1985 the government gave the Aboriginal peoples official ownership of Ayers Rock. They then leased the rock and the national park to the government for 99 years. In 1993 the name of the park was changed to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. The name of the rock itself was changed to Ayers Rock/Uluru. In 2002 the name was changed to Uluru/Ayers Rock. By then the rock had become a major tourist destination.
