A DINGO was responsible for the death of Azaria Chamberlain in 1980, a Northern Territory coroner has found.

Coroner Elizabeth Morris told a packed courtroom today that a dingo was to blame for the attack at Uluru, which originally saw Azaria's mother Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton jailed for murder and her husband Michael given a suspended sentence for being an accessory after the fact.

Both were later exonerated after a royal commission in 1987.

A smiling Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, flanked by her son Aidan, told the waiting media outside a Darwin court that Australia was a “dangerous country” and her story had now been vindicated.



"We are relieved and delighted to come to the end of this saga," she said.

"No longer will Australia be able to say the dingoes are not dangerous and will only attack if provoked."

"We live in a beautiful country but it is dangerous and we'd ask all Australians to be aware of this and take appropriate precautions."

She also thanked lawyer Stuart Tipple for his "unrelenting persistence, without which we wouldn't have been able to fight so long."

“I’m here to tell you, you can get justice even when you think all is lost,” her ex-husband Michael Chamberlain said.

“This has been a terrifying battle," he said.

"Bitter at times, but now some healing and a chance to put our daughter's spirit to rest."

"I'm here to tell you, you can get justice even when you think all is lost," he said.

Mr Chamberlain has picked up Azaria's death certificate, which was changed as a result of the decision.

The certificate's previous cause of death was stated as unknown; now it reads the death was "as a result of being attacked and taken by a dingo".

"I cannot express strongly enough how important it is to pursue a just cause, even when it seems to be a mission impossible," he said.

During the inquest both the counsel assisting the coroner, Rex Wild, QC, and the lawyer representing Azaria's parents, Stuart Tipple, agreed a dingo was the most likely cause of the baby's death.

Rolling coverage of the Azaria Chamberlain inquest

The finding means Ms Chamberlain-Creighton, as she is known after remarrying, and her ex-husband Michael Chamberlain have finally won recognition that a dingo killed their child.

The inquest was the fourth into the death of Azaria since the nine-week-old child disappeared on a camping trip.

In 1988, the Northern Territory Court of Criminal Appeal overturned all convictions against the Chamberlains but a coronial inquest in 1995 delivered an open verdict.

In the final moments of handing down her finding, an emotional Ms Morris apologised to the Chamberlain family.

Ms Morris said she was satisfied the evidence was "adequate, clear, cogent and exact and excluded all other reasons possible".

She told the court: "(Azaria) died at Uluru on 17th August 1980 as a result of being attacked and taken by a dingo."

She told them an amended death certificate was available immediately to them.

Read the coroner's findings