Early European history
Uluru and Kata Tjuta were first mapped by Europeans in the 1870s during the expeditionary period made possible by the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line in 1872. William Ernest Powell Giles (better known as Ernest Giles) and William Christie Gosse, in separate expeditions, were the first European explorers to this area.
In 1872, a party led by Ernest Giles set out west from the Overland Telegraph Line looking for a route to the west coast. Whilst in the vicinity of Watarrka (Kings Canyon) he first saw Kata Tjuta and intended to name it Mount Ferdinand after his beneficiary, Baron Ferdinand von Mueller. Giles was forced to turn back before reaching Kata Tjuta after numerous failed attempts to cross a large salt lake that lay across his path. Giles suggested it be named Lake Mueller and described it as 'an infernal lake of mud and brine'. Baron von Mueller, however, insisted that Mount Ferdinand be named Mount Olga and Lake Mueller became Lake Amadeus, after the then reigning King and Queen of a German Province, recognised by Giles as "…two enlightened royal patrons of science".
In 1873, separate parties, led by Giles and William Gosse set out for the Uluru - Kata Tjuta area. This time Giles tried a different route, approaching the region from the Musgrave Ranges in the south. Ironically it was Gosse, also looking for a passage to the west and following in Giles original tracks, who reached the area first. On 19 July 1873 Gosse saw Uluru and named it Ayers Rock after Sir Henry Ayers, the Chief Secretary of South Australia.
Further explorations followed with the aim of establishing the possibilities of the area for pastoralism. It was soon concluded that the area was unsuitable and few Europeans visited over the following decades, apart from small numbers of mineral prospectors, surveyors and scientists.
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