Imagine that your nine-week-old, longed-for daughter is taken by a wild animal in the night. Imagine you are suspected of killing her, and then convicted of this crime and imprisoned. Imagine that long after you are declared innocent of the crime, people still crack dingo jokes in your presence and speculate about your guilt. Imagine being Lindy Chamberlain.
It may well seem unimaginable to most of us that, despite her being victim of one of our nation’s most significant miscarriages of justice, Australians can continue to joke and gossip about Lindy.
It is as if we have collectively forgotten that this case, at its core, was about the death of a child. Azaria, who would be 32 years old this year, has become a marginal character in the larger story about her mother, Alice Lynne “Lindy” Chamberlain, whose wrongful conviction left a scar upon our national memory.
Today’s coronial findings, which confirm Azaria Chamberlain was killed by a dingo, finally close a traumatic chapter in Australia’s legal and cultural history, and properly returns Azaria’s memory to her family.
Azaria’s parents requested this fourth coronial inquest, seeking a formal finding that their daughters’ death was the result of a dingo attack. Counsel assisting the coroner, Rex Wild QC, conceded that even at the time of Lindy’s trial for murder, the evidence supported the dingo attack explanation, and he asked the coroner to now accept this. Azaria’s parents were represented by Stuart Tipple, the same lawyer who has represented them from the beginning, who provided additional evidence of multiple dingo attacks, including fatal attacks, in support of the dingo explanation.
The history of the case
Most Australians know the details of the case. On a holiday visit to Uluru, the Chamberlains pitched tent at a camping ground with a magnificent view of the rock. During their evening BBQ, their infant daughter was snatched from the tent by a dingo, and carried away across the dunes, leaving blood-spattered bedding and a heartbroken family behind. The baby’s torn and bloodied jumpsuit was found near a dingo lair some weeks later.
The indigenous Australians who tracked the fresh paw prints from the tent had no doubt that dingoes were responsible for the baby’s disappearance. Campsite eyewitnesses confirmed Lindy’s account of the night’s events. The first coronial inquest heard from the local park rangers about six recent attacks by “tame park dingoes” on humans, mostly children.
The Alice Springs coroner had no difficulty reaching the conclusion that a wild dingo had killed Azaria Chamberlain.
But the story did not end there. The coroner’s report, which criticised police procedure, was not well received by the Northern Territory government, and Darwin-based detectives launched a second investigation. The NT took on independent governance only two years before Azaria’s disappearance. Territory newspapers complained that the NT was being infantilised by the states, that the Commonwealth wouldn’t let it manage its own affairs.
During the first inquest, the Chamberlains received abusive phone calls, death threats and a bomb threat. The second inquest, and a sensational murder trial, was headline news.
In 1982, Lindy was convicted of murder by a jury in the Northern Territory Supreme Court, and sentenced to life in prison. 19 days later, she gave birth to her second daughter Kahlia, who was taken from her four hours after her birth, into her father’s care.
The Federal Court later released Lindy on bail while her appeal could be heard and, when her appeal failed, she was returned to prison. She appealed to the High Court, which refused her bail application, and which later also refused her appeal. Having exhausted all avenues of appeal, Azaria’s death certificate was formally amended to read “extensive wounding to the neck”, consistent with the murder theory advanced by prosecutors.
A growing tide of doubt began to rise against Lindy’s conviction and the scientific evidence presented by the prosecution. However, it was the chance discovery of Azaria’s missing matinee jacket that forced the NT government to respond. Lindy had always maintained that Azaria had been wearing the jacket when she disappeared, and it would have explained the lack of dingo saliva on her jumpsuit. Days after it was found, the NT Attorney-General announced an inquiry into the case, and following day the Governor-General of Australia advised that the inquiry would be joined with a Royal Commission.
The Royal Commission commenced in 1986 and heard 92 days of evidence, at which 145 witnesses testified. The Commissioner reported on the serious mistakes made by scientists, on the erroneous opinions tendered against Lindy, and the serious risk of injustice that had manifested as a result of the poor scientific evidence adduced against the Chamberlains.
The Commissioner found that the evidence could no longer support a guilty verdict. On 2 June 1987, when the report was tabled in parliament, the Chamberlains were formally pardoned. The following year, the NT Court of Criminal Appeal stated: “The convictions having been wiped away, the law of the land holds the Chamberlains to be innocent.”
In 1991, the NT government paid the Seventh Day Adventist church for legal costs involved in the Chamberlains’ defence, and the Chamberlains were paid $19,000 for the cost of their car, which had never been returned to them. In 1992, Lindy was paid $900,000 and Michael received $400,000 as ex gratia payments for their wrongful convictions. The Chamberlains continued to seek a formal apology from the Northern Territory government, which they have never received.
The Chamberlains also sought to have Azaria’s death certificate corrected, and the matter was referred back to the Coroner, who ordered a third inquest. The Chamberlains asked for Azaria’s death to be recorded as having been caused by a dingo attack. However, the coroner was not satisfied, despite the findings of the Royal Commission, that the evidence supported this view. He returned an “open finding” about Azaria’s death and ruled the “cause and manner of death as unknown”.
Why does it matter?
Australia’s interest in Lindy Chamberlain has not abated. Our media industries have profited enormously from this story. The case has been recreated in television documentaries, a mini-series, an opera, and a Hollywood film. There is something about this story that resists closure, that refuses our attempts to turn it into “history” and relegate it safely to the past.
The Chamberlain case has long been Australia’s unfinished business. The significant anniversaries of Azaria’s disappearance reminded so many of us how we got it wrong.
How we judged a woman by her failure to conform to our expectations of “normal” feminine behaviour. How we accepted flawed forensic evidence over the eyewitness testimony and that of the Indigenous trackers.
How we allowed suspicions about the Chamberlains’ religion to taint our perceptions of their innocence. We returned repeatedly to this story because we could not forget our shame or explain away our deeply irrational reactions to Lindy Chamberlain.
On the 25th anniversary of Azaria’s death, Lindy issued a plea: “Please do not lose sight of the fact that this is a real case, with a real child, and real family behind all the court cases and media attention.”
Let’s hope that today’s finding can provide the Chamberlains with the justice they have sought for so long in their daughter’s memory, and finally close this traumatic chapter of our national past.
Deborah Staines, Michelle Arrow and Katherine Biber are co-editors of The Chamberlain Case: Nation, Law, Memory, published by Australian Scholarly Publishing.
John Coochey
Mr
There remains the issue of the child alleged to be Azaria being the wrong size for a child of that age and the fact a child of that weight could be carried from the campsite to Ayers rock a considerable distance. Non of the recent dingo attacks have involved movement of a body. I will get on to Google Earth to remind myself of the exact distance. I think a really good reality TV would by Lindy taking a public polygraph test for large remuneration, there was of course a president for this.
Grendelus Malleolus
Senior Nerd
Having been the victim of a dingo attack on Fraser Island as a 12-year old I would argue that a dingo has sufficient strength to drag or carry a small child a great distance. Dingos may hunt alone - or as part of a pack, and as distasteful as it may be to raise this point you are making the assumption that the body of the child was carried intact over the entire distance. Having seen predatorial canines at work I would suggest that if a single dingo took the child it would likely have been joined quickly by pack mates on its journey away from the camp ground.
Mike Mayfield
logged in via Facebook
Dingos have been documented dragging and/or carrying wallabies, kangaroos etc (or parts thereof) a considerable distance away to feed on them. What on earth makes you think they couldn't do it to a small baby? Like any wild animal, it's all just food to them.
Sean Lamb
Science Denier
Maybe a dingo does have the capacity to kill a baby and carry it for 4 kilometres before abstracting it from its clothing.
But until you have a body it would seem to me you have a very weak case for excluding human agency. It was theoretically possible for a dingo to have done it, therefore it did.
Move along, nothing to see here
John Coochey
Mr
I do not think so, I breed and train gun dogs which are about the same size as a dingo and the most I have known them carry, as opposed to drag, is a fox. And then for less than forty yards, Remember the original baby jacket was found without burrs, strange in itself and the matinee jacket would have had to have been removed first but was found further away, if indeed it was the same jacket. When you count the tens of thousands of tourists that visit the area each year it is surprising there is not more lost and abandoned clothing. It is a bit like the JFK assassination when a highly trained marksman cannot fire three shots in six seconds from that kind of rifle how di d Oswald do it? Basically it has to be shown a dog can carry a weight of that magnitude for that distance and I have not seen any evidence it can
Mike Mayfield
logged in via Facebook
It's "a bit like the JFK assassination"? Aah, I get it now. It's all a giant conspiracy kept secret by sinister forces. What a natural and sensible conclusion........
And so what if "tens of thousands" of tourists visit there each year? Same goes for areas where crocodiles roam, and not all of them get eaten or attacked by crocodiles. But once in a blue moon, someone unfortunately does.
BTW, the original matinee jacket didn't exist in the Crown case. It was supposed to be a fabrication, a lie…
Read moreSean Alexander
Jack of all
Yes, I got sucked in by trial-by-media back then as well, but now I'm all growed up and can accept that we were misled. But hey, I bet the media sold a whol load of ad-space back then, that was a win.
What a shame the general public thought they actually had any business making their own decisions on this, and even more shameful, that some people are still stubbornly clinging a guilty opinion.
John Nicolay
Secretary
John - I think if you did some more reading about the trial and understood (a) how preposterous the sequence of events advanced by the prosecution was, and (b) the importance to the conviction of forensic evidence that has since been thoroughly discredited, you might feel less suspicious and more sympathetic towards the Chamberlains.
John Coochey
Mr
Well the JFK is good parallel because there is evidence that the three shots took eleven seconds which is quite achievable. Likewise some of the dingoes being shot in the Namadgee south of Canberra are the size of an American timber wolf having interbred with domestic dogs but when I visited the settlement in the late eighties there were no dogs much bigger than a kelpie (it had been suggested it was a village dog responsible) and I certainly saw no evidence of large dingoes. If someone can provide evidence of mega dingoes in the area othewise tell me wha a baby girl of that age would weigh and I will do some experiments with my own dogs
Anthony Nolan
Ruminant
Great. People like you make the left look sane. Keep it up!
John Coochey
Mr
Actually the most preposterous was the original inquest finding with anonymous humans involved after the dingo was. In 89 I was in Managua discussing things with a pack of valiant leftie Sanalistas (volunteers backing the Sandanista Government which was thrown out the next year and asked them how far away from the camp site a matinee jacket could be and still be relevant to the case. Not one out of a dozen actually gave the distance it actually was from Azaria's disappearance all giving much lower figures. Where should a line be drawn? Brisbane Perth? The fact remains if a dog of that size cannot carry a given weight that distance then the hypothesis falls down.
Josh Wright
logged in via Facebook
John, have you read the case? If not, I suggest you direct your attention to the judgment of Gibbs CJ and Mason J, particularly their detailed presentation of the facts of the case. Within their judgment is a clear description of the tracks leading from the Chamberlains' tent, the repeated drag marks in the sand consistent with the clothes worn by Azaria, the small drops of blood in randomized places around the area in the tent where Azaria was laid (as well as the blood of an animal), amongst further…
Read moreSean Lamb
Science Denier
While I agree evidence was entered in the court that drag marks were seen consistent with the imprint of Azara's clothes, the same evidence said these tracks were traced to a point 18.5 kilometers away from where the jumpsuit was found.
I would rate these trackers as reliable as police investigation into fetal hemoglobin. In both cases photographic evidence was not taken, or if taken destroyed soon after. It is unfortunate human frailty to overstate the certainty that there particular expertise can give them - you can trust me on that, I'm a climate scientist,
Mike Mayfield
logged in via Facebook
Just had to get a swipe in at climate scientists didn't you? Which suggests you don't actually read or understand what qualified climate scientists have been saying for the last few years and the predictive uncertainties they acknowledge.
In the Chamberlain case, the issue was not the professional knowledge of forensic science as a whole, but the misapplication of it by a particular individual who used poor lab techniques and then falsely testified at the trial. Joy Kuhl stated that she only got positive results for foetal blood. In fact she got negative results too, but she did not say this at the trial, only conceding it later at the Royal Commission.
What chance did Lindy Chamberlain have when the main Crown scientific witness deliberately gave false testimony?
John Coochey
Mr
Nevertheless the first set of clothing had no burrs. The accounts of the aboriginal trackers or more accurately their abilities seem to have grown over the years like chines whispers. I have employed native trackers and some know less about it than I do and others have near miraculous uncanny powers but the latter group would not loose a track in terrain which by international standards is ideal tracking country
Josh Wright
logged in via Facebook
Again, I suggest you read the case. I made no reference to the trackers but to the witnesses present at the time of the baby's disappearance who instigated the initial search.
Mike Mayfield
logged in via Facebook
And what exactly are you trying to achieve, John?
The evidence leading to the original verdicts has been re-examined by a Royal Commission and the convictions are quashed. The coronial inquest has been re-convened and has found that on the balance of probabilities, a dingo did in fact do it.
So again, what on earth are your "dog and doll" experiments supposed to achieve? Let it go. It's over. Move on. Nothing to see here.
John Coochey
Mr
That completely makes my case. Had the aboriginal trackers (who were cited in an ABC Radio broadcast today in an interview with the then Head Ranger) been called on as expert witnesses I would cross question them if they were so sure about a child being dragged and carried why they lost and then could not pick up the trail again in very favorable conditions. I had a tracker in Botswana who tracked one particular wildebeest for nearly four hours across sand which had been crossed and re crossed by…
Read moreEddy Schmid
Retired
WOW, here we go again, so many qualified experts, who all fail to see, it is that expertise that destroyed Lindy's life.
And to the so called 'experts' who claim a dingo could not have done what is being claimed, and that no dingo has ever done anything like this, I direct you all to FRASER ISLAND.
Do some research on the issue of Dingoes,/attacks on Fraser Island, then come back and tell us again, how it's impossible for dingoes to behave in this manner.
I also point out, that in the case of Fraser Island, many of the kids involved WERE NOT LITTLE BABIES, yet were still being dragged by dingoes.
Get your heads out of the Latte, and come back to the 'real' World people.
Whilst we're on the subject, what has ever been done to the folks who submitted FALSE evidance and claims on the Azzaria case, which includes Police and so called scientists. Absolutely nothing.
Gives me great condifance in the Australian judicial system. NOT !
John Coochey
Mr
Let us take your statement of 18.5 k as accurate where was this in relation to the matinee jacket? Why would a dingo remove the jacket without blood marks and then go on to remove the other clothing with blood marks and then go back on patrol?
Philip Dowling
IT teacher
So a dog breeder doesn't think that a dog (dingo) could have killed Azaria. Would it be impertinent to ask if you think if any of your dogs would ever attack a child, as all dog ownwers seem to think.
John Coochey
Mr
Well if you had read what I wrote you would know that it is the carrying ability of a medium sized dog that I queried. That I think was what got the case reopened after the original inquest.
Seán McNally
Market and Social Researcher
It is great that the Chamberlains have received justice, but let's not mistake hindsight for evidence against those in the legal, media and public sphere or to later re-weight which evidence is credable and which is not. A lot about this case was unusual. Until the case, who had ever heard of Dingo killing a child, or even taking a baby? . . . and since? Unlike shark or croc attacks this was not something that would be instantly understood. Even now Dingo attacks are rare, and that is not due to a great 'keep safe' campaign by the gov't or collective cultural memory.
A baby being killed strikes a very emotional chord, and so it should. A baby being killed in an unsual set of circumstance should also attract suscpicion, even if later found to unfounded. It won't be good for the people at the centre, but we need it for societies benefit.
Sian Morton
logged in via Facebook
It would have been a good start if there had actually been a shred of evidence or motive to support the convictions of the Chamberlains. Nobody who read the first hand accounts of those at the scene at the time Azaria disappeared would find it hard to accept that the parents were innocent. I challenge those with any lingering doubts to read John Bryson's well researched book as well as Lindy Chamberlain's autobiography.
Sean Lamb
Science Denier
True, but there really isn't any evidence against the dingo either, except that one was supposedly seen in the area.
If you don't mind seeing bloodstained clothing, you can view the jumpsuit here and make up your own mind
http://www.perthnow.com.au/gallery-fn4k4hnh-1225936991304?page=5
I am afraid I can't help feeling these dingos at the Fertility cave had opposable thumbs. Although I dare say that if it were needed we would hear that there are studies that have shown dingos can peel bananas, bury bodies, drive cars and possibly even play the violin or use mimosian antimatter chopsticks.
I guess this is why we have experts, to help us doubt our common-sense.
John Nicolay
Secretary
Sean - it's wrong to say that there isn't any evidence that a dingo killed Azaria. Apart from the circumstantial evidence of the dingoes seen around the campsite and the attacks that had taken place already, there was the evidence of the trackers that they followed the tracks of a dingo carrying a heavy object and stopping to rest, plus the discovery of the matinee jacket 30 metres from a dingo den. If you compare that evidence with the complete lack of evidence of human agency (remembering that the foresnic evidence that was used to convict her, such as the "fetal hemoglobin" in the Torana, has been thoroughly discredited) plus the utter preposterousness of the supposed sequence of events that the prosecution advanced in the trial, there's just no logical room to consider murder a possibility.
Sean Lamb
Science Denier
Well if the trackers were that good they would have found the body or at least the site where it was eaten - as I don't suppose Dingos are the cleanest of eaters.
What a fascinating case, I never paid much attention to it before, but I spent a highly enjoyable evening chasing up all the reports. You put "fetal haemoglobin" in quotes, but there was nothing stupid about looking for fetal hemoglobin - there are robust medical tests for it. I am not sure the purpose that Behringwerke produced their…
Read moreGrendelus Malleolus
Senior Nerd
Why are you assuming there was only one dingo by the latter stages of the tragedy?
Sean Lamb
Science Denier
OK - so Dingo A takes the baby and walks 100 meters into the sand dune leaving 3 clear imprints of woven fabric in the sand dunes and then passes baby to Dingo B which circles around camp back to the rock for 6 kilometers. Meanwhile Dingo A continues in a straightish track in the completely opposite direction until it hits the road 8 km away.
Again possible - but it lacks the truly definitive pieces of evidence to say it was proved beyond doubt
Seán McNally
Market and Social Researcher
John, not sure why you posted that comment against me. I wrote “Until the case, who had ever heard of Dingo killing a child, or even taking a baby? . . . and since? Unlike shark or croc attacks this was not something that would be instantly understood. Even now Dingo attacks are rare . . .”.
My comments were about society’s reactions and my dislike for judgment of others through hindsight painting others as an ignorant mob. More value is in understanding why we behaved the way we do. Less…
Read morePhilip Dowling
IT teacher
Not unless the people involved as accessories after the fact confessed.
Chris Allen
logged in via Facebook
This whole story shows a nasty streak in the Australian character. The vicious mistreatment of the Chamberlains by the media and the whole nation as a result is just one example of Australian social groupthink.
The 'love media' including the ABC and the bulk of the academic community just cant help themselves - from the vicious pursuit of the fish and chip shop lady, to hounding out a churchman Governor-General, the personal attacks on those who question climate orthodoxy, to the lynch mob smashing innocent shooters in the face from 1996-2003, Australia's national sport is judgementalism cna moral condemnation for that rixh rush of self-congratulation. The rush to judge Lindy Chamberlain is just one example.
Chris Allen
logged in via Facebook
Damn my spelling!
Australia's national sport is judgementalism and moral condemnation for that rich rush of self-congratulation. The rush to judge Lindy Chamberlain is just one example.
Marilyn Shepherd
pensioner
And today the trial by media continues whenever anyone is accused of some transgression.
Ask Craig Thomson who has never been charged with a single thing but has been hounded and hounded by the media to the point they invent hookers and rely on bogus credit slips.
This case though is one of the most shameful I can ever remember with this poor family demonised and vilified to the point of madness.
I hope journos today go back and study the case in detail and remember that they are supposed to report news and not be the news.
Ron Hoenig
logged in via Facebook
It seems like we commentators have just made the point that Deborah is making. Stop arguing about the dingo. I suppose I never believed that Lyndy had done it, but to my enormous shame, even after seeing the film, somehow the fact that this couple had lost their child and were mourning her terrible loss never dawned on me until I heard Lyndy say on the ABC yesterday that the it was Azaria's birthday. She would have been 32 years old. This family has been destroyed and we wank on about the bloody dingo. We owe them the respect of their long and lonely grief.
Deborah Staines
Independent Researcher at Monash University
Thanks to everyone for their comments. There are a few points I would like to contribute here, for the sake of clarity.
Read moreFirstly, the material evidence was exhaustively dealt with by the Royal Commission. There is no need to re-try the evidence here. You will find Justice Morling's report in most public libraries, or you can read extracts and sumaries of all of the legal proceedings - except for the most recent coronial inquest - in our book, The Chamberlain Case: Nation, Law, Memory. our book is…
Sean Lamb
Science Denier
"To suggest otherwise is to stray into the zone of libel and defamation."
Yes, Dr Staines, thank you for that timely reminder. I am no stranger to the ways of libel and defamation having fled one country's jurisdiction with the lawyers of a highly prestigious university firing writs at my departing heels. And yet, I must be losing my edge, there was a time when I would have been leaping in feet first loudly assigning responsibility but I look through what I and everyone else has written and…
Read moreJacky Bailey
Bid Manager
Thank you, Deborah, for this powerful and insightful article. It never ceases to shock me when otherwise intelligent and compassionate people make jokes about this. What could possibly be funny about a little baby being taken by a wild animal?
James Walker
logged in via Facebook
"The Chamberlains continued to seek a formal apology from the Northern Territory government, which they have never received."
Of course not, that would be responsible.
Now, after 3 decades of 'self-government' has the NT govt justified its' existence? The ACT self-govt has been a disaster; while Norfolk Island self-govt is so bad that even ACT Labor admits that it's failed (http://www.actlabor.org.au/images/stories/Platform_2011.pdf page 90).
Cases like this one show that incompetent regional governments aren't just a waste of money, they risk terrible miscarriages of justice. Unless they're scrapped, these sort of things are going to keep happening. Especially in the NT, where we've got locals dying like flies from easily preventable causes.
Ren Shen
logged in via Facebook
In reply to the people who claim that dingo attacks "don't happen", we visited Fraser Island 2 years ago. The campsite that we stayed at was fenced to protect people from dingos and at the very back of the site, not highlighted and quite overgrown was a small plaque. This plaque was placed to commemorate the death of a 10 YEAR OLD BOY who had died after being attacked by dingos.
I suspect that there are many cases like this that do not get very much media attention at all, mainly because of the threat it would pose to the tourism industry.
Sean Lamb
Science Denier
Actually if I recall it was an enormous story when it happened.
BTW, if anyone wants to know where a good place to put up a plaque to commemorate Azaria Chamberlain I know exactly where it could go.