Lindy Chamberlain – Creighton

The simple story is that three people heard the cry of Azaria on the night she disappeared from the tent in the camping ground at Ayers Rock (Uluru). Lindy saw a dingo coming out of the tent and dingo tracks were seen around and inside the tent. Blood from Azaria was found in large quantities – for an infant – on the tent mattress and other items, on the tent itself, near the carry-basket she had been sleeping in, and next to dingo tracks.

Shortly after the alarm was raised, Aboriginal and white trackers following the dingo prints (until they could no longer, as it mixed with shoe prints of humans on the road) saw drag marks in the sand; in two places were there was a shallow depression in the sand, where a bundle had been set down, apparently while the animal rested. The depressions contained the imprint of a knitted garment, and next to one, small, dark patches in the sand, which they took to be blood.

For everyone who had been with the Chamberlains that day, or held the vigil with them that night as they waited for word on their daughter, there was no question that the Chamberlains were a loving family, and that they had just experienced the loss of their daughter and sister under horrific circumstances.

But false rumors began to fly. Some members of the media and police helped spread the rumours. The first inquest found that Azaria had died by a dingo attack, and the Coroner chastised the police for shoddy work. He felt that some police may have been against the idea of a dingo being involved, and that their ‘evidence’ against the Chamberlains did not stand up.

Some who felt attacked by the coroner vowed to ‘set things right’ as they saw it. Eight months later, in the coordinated nationwide ‘Operation Ochre’ the Chamberlain’s home was searched and large quantities of items were taken by police.