ULURU, NT. — Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock) is a huge monolith in central Australia, second in size only to Mount Augustus, also in Australia. It has long been a popular tourist destination, but it gained a new notoriety on the night of August 17, 1980, when a baby girl went missing from the nearby camping ground.
Michael and Lindy Chamberlain and their three children had arrived at Uluru the day before. When baby Azaria disappeared, Lindy claimed that a dingo had stolen her baby.
No trace of the child was ever found, although her bloodstained clothes were found a week later by another tourist. At the first inquest into her death, commencing in February 1981, it was found that the likely cause of Azaria’s disappearance was a dingo attack.
Police and prosecutors moved for a second inquest, which was held in September 1981.
This time, the new finding was made that Azaria had been killed with a pair of scissors and held by a small adult hand until she stopped bleeding.
Lindy Chamberlain was convicted of murder on October 29, 1982.
Her acquittal came several years later when a British tourist fell to his death from the Rock. When his body was finally located 8 days later amid an area full of dingo lairs, Azaria Chamberlain’s missing jacket was also found.
New evidence was presented showing that the methods of testing previous evidence had been unreliable, and no conviction could be made on those grounds.
Lindy was released, and eventually awarded AU$1.3 million in compensation for wrongful imprisonment.
