A FAMILY TRAGEDY
In 1980, five years before my family moved to the small town of Alice Springs in the centre of Australia, Lindy Chamberlain and her family went on a Central Australian camping holiday. Like hundreds of thousands of tourists before and since, their visit included nearby Ayers Rock - now known as Uluru. An attraction ‘nearby’ by Central Australian standards, Australia’s ‘must-see’ monolith is actually 500 kilometres by road from the nearest town of Alice Springs.
Baby Azaria was asleep in their tent early one evening and on return, Lindy discovered a wild Dingo dog running off with her baby in its mouth. People around the world became familiar with her cry at the time - “A dingo’s got my baby” and despite extensive searching, Azaria’s body was never found. Investigators initially considered Lindy’s story plausible, but growing public suspicion and forensic evidence shifted the focus to foul play.
Convicted for her baby’s murder two years later, Lindy’s chilling cry on that night led to a decade of grief for her and her family as they fought an ongoing legal battle, including an appeal to Australia’s High Court.
TRIAL BY MEDIA
The popularist media had a sensationalist heyday with the story and everyone had an opinion. While Lindy had a great many supporters, the media’s influence led the majority of Australians to believe in her guilt. Opinions fuelled by Lindy’s apparent cold and emotionless demeaner.
I regret that at that the time, I was one of those who followed the media’s influence.
A SIMILAR THREAT
Over forty years later, close friends in Darwin told of their experience camping at Ayers Rock a year before Azaria’s disappearance. They also briefly left their infant in their tent and discovered a Dingo sniffing around it. Fortunately for our friends, they managed to frighten the dingo away.
POLICE INVESTIGATION
The Northern Territory had been previously ruled by the Federal Government in faraway Canberra, but became self-governing two years before Azaria’s death.
The new government considered tourism a major pillar of its future prosperity and was presumably horrified by the bad publicity of Azaria’s death. It is highly likely that it put pressure on its police force for a quick conviction.
With a total population of some 150,000, the Territory’s new police force was limited in both numbers and experience. In addition to possible political pressure, it is likely the new force considered the Chamberlain case an opportunity to ‘prove itself’ and gain its first major scalp with Lindy’s arrest.
A CHANGE OF OPINION
Later trials and coronial investigations demonstrated that some elements of the prosecution’s case did not stand detailed examination. Lindy’s vocal supporters in the much larger states put greater and greater pressure on the Northern Territory Government for Lindy’s prison release.
By this time, like so many others, I had reversed my belief in Lindy’s guilt.
A CONVENIENT REPREIVE
After seven years in the heat and red dirt of Central Australia, what was supposedly Azaria’s matinee jacket was ‘discovered’ in the area.
The Territory’s Chief Minister (equivalent to Premier in other Australian states) was the guest speaker at a dinner meeting I attended in Alice Springs. During pre-dinner drinks, he casually advised that the matinee jacket had been found earlier in the day and that tomorrow, the government would formally announce Lindy’s release.
It is believed there would not have been sufficient time to conduct a detailed forensic examination of the jacket in that timeframe.
Shortly after, her conviction was formally overturned by the NT Court of Criminal Appeals.
ONGOING INTEREST
Lindy’s story has been made into a television movie, a feature film titled Evil Angels (released outside Australia and New Zealand as A Cry in the Dark), a television mini-series, a theatrical production and an opera.
LATER INVOLVEMENT
Like most Australian’s, I was always interested in the ongoing developments in Lindy’s treatment. A relatively superficial interest until I appeared as a film ‘extra’ during the production of Evil Angels/A Cry in the Dark.
My interest further increased when the touring play Letters to Lindy was performed in Darwin, one of the play’s few performances that ended with Lindy as a guest, making a speech and opening herself to queries from the audience. Despite the rigors of her decade long ordeal, I found her discussion both heart warming and rewarding.
FINAL THOUGHTS
- With the generally accepted belief that Lindy was entirely innocent, my heart goes out to her for all that she suffered. From the loss of her precious daughter to the endless accusations, slurs, trials and imprisonment.
2. Lindy is the only one who truly knows of her innocence, but the slightest of doubt still remains in the minds of so many.
3. Presumably, like my friends, there were similar Dingo reports in the past. Were these incidents thoroughly investigated before Lindy’s various trials?
4. Was the discovery of the matinee jacket contrived to reduce the criticism of the NT Government? Was a thorough investigation of the matinee jacket ever made – and if so, how had the jacket survived in such harsh conditions?
5. The case has remained in my mind for decades and was the inspiration for my action/adventure/mystery book Outback Drama, the first of the Outback Adventures series. Written under the pen name William Sims, the novella is available from Amazon Kindle.
A DINGO’S GOT
MY BABY
My apology to Lindy Chamberlain