Justice Wilcox found that
in 1829 the claim
area was occupied and used by «Aboriginal people who spoke dialects
of a common language and who acknowledged and observed a common body
of laws and customs».47 He accepted that what united and distinguished them from neighbouring groups was a «commonality
of belief, language, custom and material culture».48 Though sub-groups or families exercised
particular rights and responsibilities for
particular areas to which they «belonged», those rights and responsibilities
arose from a wider normative system that operated within the broader Noongar society.49 The rights
of the sub-group were burdened by the entitlement
of others to access land for various purposes.50