Uluru Is Handed Back to Its Traditional Owners

Aboriginal people have lived around the massive sandstone formation known as Uluru for tens of thousands of years, at least 30,000 according to Parks Australia. For the local Anangu, the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people, the landmark holds profound sacred significance, anchored in ancestral creation stories known as Tjukurpa. European mapping of the desert region occurred in the 1870s, when surveyor William Gosse observed the formation and named it Ayers Rock in honour of Sir Henry Ayers, then Chief Secretary of South Australia. Over subsequent decades, pastoral expansion led to intense conflict over waterholes and depleted food resources, bringing violence and disruption to the traditional inhabitants.

During the early twentieth century, the Australian government declared adjoining tracts of land across South Australia, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory as Aboriginal reserves. In 1920, the area surrounding the rock was included in an Aboriginal reserve, known as the South West or Petermann Reserve. However, postwar policy changes and the emergence of tourism shifted state priorities. The first recreational visitors had arrived in 1936, prompting the construction of vehicular tracks in 1948 and commercial bus routes soon after. An Ayers Rock National Park was declared in 1950, and in 1958 Kata Tjuta was added to create the Ayers Rock-Mount Olga National Park, placed under the administration of the Northern Territory Reserves Board and building motels and an airstrip near the landmark.