First Nations people have lived in the area around Uluru and Kata Tjuta for at least 30,000 years, and it continues to be a significant region for the local Anangu who tell creation stories of these ancestral lands as part of their Tjukurpa. In 1873, surveyor William Gosse sighted ‘the Rock' and in honour of the then Chief Secretary of South Australia Sir Henry Ayers, named it Ayers Rock. It wasn't until 1993 that Uluru became the first icon in Australia to be given back its Aboriginal name, making it the first official dual-named feature in the Northern Territory.