When the Truth Came Out Trivia Quiz

Answer: None

It was critical to the events that subsequently occurred that only Mrs Chamberlain claimed she saw a dingo near the tent. There was plenty of circumstantial evidence: blood in the tent, dingo tracks leading away from the tent and a depression near the tracks, thought to be where a dingo rout the baby down and rested.

A couple, who befriended the Chamberlains at Ayers Rock, stated a dingo followed them and also they heard a baby cry when the Chamberlains were with them. A search revealed no sign of missing Azaria.

Much press coverage was later made of dad Richard Chamberlain, a priest, not joining in with the Ayers Rock campers searching for Azaria, stating that she was "probably dead now".

Answer: Bloodstained baby clothing was found near Ayers Rock

On 24th August 1980, Wally Goodwin, an English tourist, found a bloodstained jumpsuit, booties, nappy & singlet in a gully near Uluru about 4km from the campsite. A matinee jacket was not found. Mr Goodwin reported the findings to the police which stepped up the investigation. Lindy and Michael Chamberlain were interviewed and treated as suspects.

Answer: A dingo took Azaria Chamberlain

Coroner Denis Barrit reported in February 1981 that Azaria Chamberlain "met her death when attacked by a wild dingo whilst asleep in her family's tent". Mr Barritt also found that Lindy and Michael Chamberlain were in no way, "in any degree whatsoever responsible for her death." However, there were still some unanswered questions that were not easily explained by Coroner Barritt such as "the body of Azaria was taken from the possession of the dingo and disposed of by an unknown method, by a person or persons name unknown".

Answer: Commits Lindy Chamberlain to trial on the charge of murdering Azaria.

After the inquest, that might have been the end of the legal proceedings but the police case was ramped up. Operation Ochre saw the Chamberlains' home raided and their car impounded. On 20th November 1981 the Northern Territory Supreme Court quashed the findings of the first inquest and ordered a new one, which commenced in Darwin in December 1981. The first inquest was about dingoes, the second about blood: English forensic scientist James Cameron, concluded from examining the baby clothes "that no dingo had been involved in her disappearance" and the the tears in the clothing were "more consistent with scissors." Joy Kuhl, a forensic biologist testified that she found "foetal blood beneath the passenger seat of the Torana" (family car).

In February 1982, Coroner Gerry Galvin commits Lindy Chamberlain to trial on the charge of murdering Azaria. Michael Chamberlain is charged as an accessory after the fact.

Answer: Murder

There was no motive, no body and no eye witnesses. Nevertheless the prosecution made it clear in its opening address somebody, and not a dingo had killed Azaria Chamberlain. who "died very quickly because somebody had cut her throat". Damning evidence came from Joy Kuhl, the forensic biologist: "her tests proved that the blood found on the dash support bracket in the Chamberlain's Torana belonged to an infant". Mrs Chamberlain who was eight months pregnant, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Her husband was found to be an accessory after the fact, and given a suspended sentence.

Answer: Police looking for his body, after a slip from Uluru, came across the missing baby clothing

Kahlia Chamberlain was born in prison and given to foster parents. Mrs Chamberlain's appeal was rejected in the federal court 3-0 and againt in the High Court 3-2 on appeal. In January 1986, David Brett fell off a climb on the Rock. His body disappeared in thick scrub near the base of Uluru, it took eight days to find his body and whilst doing so searchers came across a blood-stained matinee jacket, which was identified as Azaria Chamberlain's.

This was proof that Lindy Chamberlain had not lied.

The Chief Minister ordered Lindy's release from prison and she left on 7th February 1986, over three years after she was imprisoned.

Answer: Cleared the Chamberlain's of "all guilt or responsibility"

A Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry. In 1987 Justice Trevor Morling tabled a 379 page report about the disappearance of Azaria Chamberlain, which contained four major findings: the report was "critical of the investigatory techniques of Joy Kuhl and James Cameron" (the foetal blood found in the family car was rust inhibitor or sound deadener); critical of the lack of weight of the evidence of the other campers around Uluru and their collective opinion that Lindy had not killed her daughter; an overall statement "I am far from being persuaded that Mrs. Chamberlain's account of having seen a dingo near the tent was false" and perhaps the most damning of all: "If the evidence before the Commission had been given at the trial, the trial judge would have been obliged to direct the jury to acquit the Chamberlains."

In September 1988, the Northern Territory Court of Criminal Appeals quashed all convictions against Lindy and Michael Chamberlain.

Answer: Meryl Streep

"Evil Angels" (released as "A Cry in the Dark" outside of Australia / New Zealand), was a 1988 Australian drama movie starring Meryl Streep as Lindy Chamberlain. The movie was based on a 1985 book of the same name by John Bryson Mrs Chamberlain stated "no other actress would have been able to play her better than Meryl Streep". (Ms Streep was praised for her representation of the Australian accent by U.S. critics but the opposite was stated by the Australian critics). Nevertheless, Ms Streep was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar.

The tragic Chamberlain story was then trivialised on popular television programs that contained dingo jokes which sadly, became embedded in popular culture.

In 1990, perhaps to set the record straight, Ms Chamberlain released her autobiography "Through My Eyes". A subsequent 2004 mini-series for television remained faithful to the book.

Answer: No

In December 1995, Northern Territory Coroner John Lowndes repeated what was already known: that "neither Lindy nor Michael Chamberlain were in any way involved with the disappearance of their daughter". The dingo issue was out of scope and was not considered. The cause of death was recorded as "Open".

The Chamberlains received $1.3 million in compensation for wrongful imprisonment. This was less than one third of their legal costs.

Answer: 2012 - 32 years after Azaria Chamberlain disappeared

In February 2012 a fourth inquest was undertaken, this time by NT Coroner Elizabeth Morris after three fatal attacks on children since the third inquest in 1995. She reported "The evidence is sufficiently adequate, clear, cogent, and exact... to exclude all other reasonable probabilities" than that a dingo entered the tent and took Azaria Chamberlain . Azaria's Mum, now Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton stated in response "This battle to get the legal truth about what caused Azaria's death has taken too long."

Consider the following evidence submitted by a dingo expert Les Harris:
"In considering the questions:
1. Could a dingo have taken the baby?
2. Could a dingo or dingoes have removed its clothing?
3. Could a dingo or dingoes have totally consumed the baby?
my answers, based on many years of observation of dingoes in their natural habitat and in captivity, would be:
1. Yes, with ease.
2. Probably yes.
3. Yes, without any doubt."

This evidence was tabled not in 2012 but at the first inquest in 1980. When the truth came out, it was 32 years later before the Australian public were convinced a dingo took Azaria Chamberlain. However, the truth was known in 1980. It is a scandalous indictment of Australian history that the police, the law, the politicians, the media and the Australian public chose not to believe it.