Aborigines are legally defined as people who are members ''of the Aboriginal race of Australia.'' The Aboriginals first came to the Australian continent around 45,000 years ago. Today about 400,000 Aborigines live in Australia, that's about 2% of Australia's population. When Europeans where not settling in Australia scientist think that there were 500-600 groups of aborigines. Like other indigenous populations, a difficult colonial history. When European settlers first came in 1606 they were attacked, and scared off by the aborigines. Then in 1770 a European explorer named James Cook and his crew fought the aborigines and started sending prisoners to Australia. The Aborigines called The Ayers Rock '' Uluru.'' Uluru is said to have come about during the much fabled time of '' Dreamtime.'' The Aborigines are being treated bad, they do not have the same rights as others. Especially there land rights. Recent government legislations will make it very difficult for many Aborigines to reclaim land that is now occupied by ranches. In the early 1900s it was commonly believed that the Aborigines were going to become extinct. The Aborigines are not just treated badly now but have had a difficult history. Since the European invasion of Australia in 1788, the Aboriginal people have been oppressed into a world unnatural to their existence for thousands of years. First came the influx of the strangers who carried with them diseases, which decimated the immediate population of the Sydney tribes. It is estimated that over 750,000 Aboriginal people inhabited the island continent in 1788. The colonists were led to believe that the land was terra nullius (‘no one’s land’), which Lt James Cook declared Australia to be in 1770 during his voyage around the coast of Australia. The Aboriginal life has never been easy, because of their rights restriction, and their difficult history.