Defining Moments in Australian History: Azaria Chamberlain final inquest
On 17 August 1980, nine-week-old Azaria Chamberlain was taken from a tent at Uluru, leading to one of Australia’s biggest legal and media events. It would be another 32 years before a certificate stating the true cause of her death was finally issued.
Michael and Lindy Chamberlain arrived at Ayers Rock (now Uluru) on 16 August 1980 with their baby daughter, Azaria, and sons, Aidan and Reagan. The following day the family explored the area and climbed the rock. In the evening they cooked dinner at the communal barbecue area and chatted with other families. Lindy settled Reagan and Azaria to sleep in the tent and returned to the barbecue.
At about 8pm, when a cry was heard from Azaria, Lindy went to check and saw a dingo leaving the tent. Frantic, she entered the tent to discover her baby gone, and was heard to cry out “A dingo’s got my baby!”. Despite extensive searches, no trace of Azaria was found but items of her bloodstained clothing were located seven days later on boulders near Uluru’s base.
Azaria’s death transfixed the nation. At the first inquest, at Alice Springs on 20 February 1981, Coroner Denis Barritt found Azaria had met her death when attacked by a wild dingo. But some people were dissatisfied, including Kenneth Brown, the forensic dentist who’d given evidence at the inquest and felt his work had been called into question. He sent Azaria’s clothing to British forensics expert Professor James Cameron for further examination whose findings, together with pressure from the NT government and police, led to the first inquest’s outcome being quashed.
Police raided the Chamberlain’s house, rumour mills went into overdrive, and on 2 February 1982 a second inquest found Lindy should be charged with murder and Michael as an accessory after the fact. A trial followed from 13 September–29 October 1982, during which stalls were set up outside the courthouse selling souvenirs and T-shirts. The prosecution held that Lindy had murdered Azaria and concealed her body in the family’s Torana car. A range of experts presented forensic evidence, much of which has since been proven to be flawed or incorrect.
Despite the support of other campers present that evening, validating evidence from Aboriginal trackers, and senior park ranger testimonies of dingo attacks on children in the area in the months before Azaria’s death, the Chamberlains were found guilty. Lindy was sentenced to life in prison with hard labour. Michael received an 18-month suspended sentence.
In November 1982 Lindy gave birth in Darwin’s Berrimah prison to Kahlia, her second daughter with Michael. A Federal Court appeal in April 1983 was rejected and a second appeal was lost in the High Court of Australia in February 1984.
The Chamberlain Innocence Committee was formed to build public support for a new inquiry and after a crucial piece of evidence supporting the Chamberlain’s testimony – Azaria’s matinee jacket, which police had insisted did not exist – was found six years after Azaria had been taken, Lindy was released from prison in February 1986.
That year the convictions were overturned by a royal commission headed by Trevor Morling. Yet despite Morling’s finding that the “evidence affords considerable support for the view that a dingo may have taken [Azaria]” an open verdict on her death was returned.
The Chamberlains were exonerated in September 1988 after the Supreme Court of Darwin quashed the convictions and declared them innocent. They divorced in 1991 and the following year were paid compensation for their ordeal. At a third inquest, in 1995, Azaria’s cause of death remained “open”. But in 2012 a fourth inquest, 32 years after Azaria disappeared, agreed with the first. Coroner Elizabeth Morris found “the cause of her death was as the result of being attacked and taken by a dingo”.
After the findings were handed down, Michael declared: “I am here to tell you that you can get justice, even when you think that all is lost.” Outside court Lindy proclaimed: “No longer will Australia be able to say that dingoes are not dangerous and only attack if provoked.”
‘Azaria Chamberlain final inquest’ forms part of the National Museum of Australia’s Defining Moments in Australian History project.
