Australian Aborigines Win Back Huge Area Of Desert An Australian state has agreed to hand back a slice of desert more than four times the size of Belgium to its traditional Aboriginal owners 50 years after they were driven out. The sprawling state of Western Australia expected a court to ratify this week a deal to return 53,000 square miles of land to the 2,000-strong Martu people, a spokesman for deputy state premier Eric Ripper said on Wednesday. "They have demonstrated that they are the traditional owners of the area and have maintained those ties since the colonization of Western Australia in 1829," Ripper told the state parliament.

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