Malcolm Brown, Darwin -Jun 13, 2012
A happy Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton after the official verdict yesterday, and (far right) Michael and Lindy with a photo of Azaria after the first inquest in 1981.
WHILE much of Australia has spent the past three decades arguing over how Azaria Chamberlain died, the Pitjantjatjara people at Uluru were never in doubt.
Azaria's father, Michael Chamberlain, said the Aboriginal people were always convinced a dingo could have taken nine-week-old Azaria when she disappeared at what was then Ayers Rock on August 17, 1980.
Yesterday, in the Darwin Magistrates Court, Deputy Coroner Elizabeth Morris agreed, handing down the official verdict that a dingo had snatched the baby from her bassinet in the Chamberlains' tent at night and dragged or carried her away.
''The cause of her death was as the result of being attacked and taken by a dingo,'' Ms Morris said, fighting back tears. ''I am so sorry for your loss. Time does not remove the pain and sadness of the death of a child.''
The finding comes after three inquests, a royal commission and the 1982 sentencing of Azaria's mother, Lindy Chamberlain, to life in prison for murdering the girl. Michael was given a suspended sentence for being an accessory after the fact.
When all the family assembled yesterday - Michael, daughter Kahlia, Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, her husband Rick Creighton, son Aidan and Aidan's wife Amber - all stresses and conflicts were forgotten as an emotional Ms Morris handed down her finding.
Lindy and Michael, both long divorced and remarried, hugged. Aidan, the boy who was six when the dingo snatched his sister, wept and hugged his mother.
The new evidence that Ms Morris had to consider consisted mainly of accounts of attacks by dingoes and dingo crosses on children, including a fatal attack on a nine-year-old boy on Queensland's Fraser Island in 2001 and fatal attacks in NSW and Queensland.
Pausing slightly to compose herself, Ms Morris said a certificate had already been drawn up and was in the Northern
Territory Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages certifying that Azaria had died as the result of a dingo attack.
Outside the court, the Chamberlains' long-standing lawyer, Stuart Tipple, said he considered the finding appropriate. ''We have three of the Chamberlains' family, Aidan, Michael and Lindy, who really know what happened that day,'' he said.
Lindy praised the work of Mr Tipple and said: ''No longer will Australians be able to say dingoes are not dangerous and will not attack unless provoked.
''We love this beautiful country but it is dangerous. We would ask all Australians to be aware of this and take appropriate actions and not wait for somebody else to do it for them.''
Michael said that establishing what happened had taken too long. ''However, I am here to tell you that you can get justice even when you think that all is lost,'' he said.
''I cannot express strongly enough how sacred our human life is and it must be protected at all cost. And I cannot express strongly enough how important it is to pursue a just cause even when it seems to be mission impossible.''
Darwin's townspeople were in a relaxed mood yesterday, a far cry from those who were seething with tension all those years ago, some of whom had worn T-shirts outside the Supreme Court proclaiming ''Acquit the dingo''.
This week the NT News carried a front-page headline describing how wild dogs, apparently interbred with a dingo, had attacked a Northern Territory campsite, ripped a tent apart with their teeth and threatened a family.