Azaria Chamberlain jacket find that overturned murder conviction

The Chamberlain family was subjected to an unprecedented level of "malicious gossip," according to Coroner Denis Barritt, who handed down his findings into Azaria's death at the first inquest in February 1981. The level of superstition was so intense his official findings included a line stating the name Azaria did not mean "sacrifice in the wilderness." Barritt took the unusual measure of televising his findings in an attempt to stem the public hysteria. He criticized the police investigation for failing to show impartiality and took aim at the Northern Territory government, claiming it had set "hidden traps for decent people" in letting tourists camp alongside dangerous animals without adequate warnings.

"The death of this babe in an area where previous attacks causing bodily injury, or potential bodily injury, is too high a price, and a totally unnecessary price to pay," Barritt said.

The findings sparked outrage. By November 1981, the NT Supreme Court quashed them. A second inquest in December that year recommended Chamberlain be charged with murder and her husband Michael with accessory after the fact. Both parents were charged and faced a grueling six-week trial.

Court sketches held by the NMA show the key moments: a park ranger giving evidence on the dangers of dingoes, Chamberlain taking the stand to defend his wife, and Lindy Chamberlain with her chin raised and eyes set to the ground as a jury found her guilty. The defense relied on Chamberlain's account that a dingo had taken her baby. Jurors weren't convinced. Azaria's body was never recovered. The jumpsuit she was wearing at the time of her death didn't have dingo saliva on it. Chamberlain argued the animal's DNA would have been contained to the matinee jacket her child had been wearing. The jacket had not been found. The prosecution questioned its existence.

A freak accident in January 1986 unraveled the conviction, along with the revelation that some evidence used to convict Chamberlain was shoddy. A British tourist fell from Uluru during a climb. In the search for his remains, Azaria's matinee jacket was discovered in sand dunes near a dingo lair. "Everything hinges on this one moment," Jensen explained. "That the right person was somehow in the right place at the right time to find that matinee jacket is just an incredible moment of chance that changed the whole course of the case."

That discovery came alongside growing discontent from scientists that the forensic tests showing blood inside the Chamberlains's family car – a yellow Holden Torana – were flawed. "Samples taken from the car [were] supposed to be foetal haemoglobin and ended up being sound-deadening spray that was put on the Torana when it was made," Eastley said.

Like the matinee jacket, the car has since transitioned from evidence to artefact at the NMA. Jensen said Michael Chamberlain, who died in 2017, rebuilt the hatchback after police returned it to him in boxes. When he handed it over to the museum, he said the car was a testament to complete forensic failure and the triumph of justice.

Chamberlain was released from prison on February 7, 1986. Years later, Coroner Elizabeth Morris determined Azaria Chamberlain had been killed by a dingo. Eastley flew back to the Northern Territory to cover the fourth and final coronial inquest in 2012. "It was a breakthrough for everyone involved and I must say I was quite moved," Eastley said. He said while the ABC wasn't part of that poor treatment, it was important to acknowledge the "extraordinary tale of woe and torment for the family."

The coroner determined it was "obvious, not just from these findings, from other injuries and deaths since, dingoes can and do cause harm to humans." Azaria's death certificate was officially updated to reflect the fatal attack. The Chamberlain family has never received an apology from the NT government.

While individual items in the Chamberlain collection are sometimes brought out for display, the vast and raw nature of the artefacts has made dedicated exhibitions difficult. "We work really closely with Lindy as to when and how she is comfortable with those items coming out and being viewed," Jensen said. The first exhibit the NMA held in 1994 drew a "dreadful" response from audiences. "It was felt to be 'in bad taste' … 'ghoulish', and people still were very divided," Jensen said.

The collection does not go unnoticed. "Lindy regularly interacts with the collection," Jensen said. "She speaks to it very directly, she brings her story to it during lectures, during debates, for access for different particular groups who have interests in the material." Parts of the collection are also used for training by professionals like members of the Australian Federal Police and are accessible to the public online.

Jensen said she hopes the archive "will serve to really help Australians remember, rather than try and forget, what was a pretty ugly episode in Australia's legal history." "[We share] the lessons that were learned, the dangers that we can observe, because history will and can repeat itself," she said. "One day, I do hope that it'll be the right time to bring much more of the collection out for people to actually enjoy as an exhibition."