It’s a phrase that has entered into popular culture and one that people might use to demonstrate the Australian (“Austrayan”) accent but, just as Kirk Lazarus said in Tropic Thunder, “the dingo’s got my baby” (and variations on this quote) really does come from a true story, and a baby really did die. The cause of that baby’s death is still officially unsolved, although that may change as a result of a new inquest that was announced this week.
The events and legal proceedings that followed baby Azaria Chamberlain’s death are among the most talked about, and most scandalous, in Australia’s history. Azaria was just over nine weeks old when she disappeared on the night of August 17, 1980 while on a camping trip with her family in the shadow of Uluru (which was called Ayers Rock at the time). There was a lot of blood in the tent, a torn blanket, a search was conducted through the night, and Azaria’s mother claimed that a dingo had taken her baby. The body was never found, all that was recovered were some pieces of Azaria’s clothing. The media was whipped into a frenzy and eventually (following two coronial inquests – the first one actually finding that a dingo caused the death) Azaria’s mother, Lindy, was charged with killing her by cutting her throat. Lindy was convicted in 1982 and sentenced to life in prison with hard labor, while her husband was convicted of being an accessory to the murder.
The prosecution relied on forensic evidence involving the baby’s clothing and tests for blood that were conducted in the Chamberlains’ vehicle. The testimony about dingos, which had been seen in the area that night by other witnesses, being capable of taking a small child was rejected. The Chamberlains appealed their convictions, but lost.
The case was reopened following the discovery of new evidence in 1986 – a man fell to his death while climbing Uluru, and in the course of recovering his remains police found another item of clothing that Lindy had always claimed her daughter had been wearing on the night she disappeared. It was fo