A dingo took Azaria Chamberlain from Ayers Rock on August 17, 1980. 40 years on and mother Lindy still gets cruel jibes thrown her way from strangers. Video / 10 news
It has now been 40 years since New Zealand-born Lindy Chamberlain, her husband and young family went camping at Uluru.
What happened that night, on August 17, 1980, has left her shaken to this day.
Her screams of "a dingo's got my baby!" rang out in the empty desert skyas she discovered her 9-week-old daughter Azaria had been snatched from her tent.
The unimaginable pain of losing her daughter at such a young age was deepened in 1982 when she was charged with the baby's murder and sentenced to life in prison.
She always maintained from the outset that a dingo had taken Azaria from their tent – but it wasn't until 2012 until a coroner ruled that she had been telling the truth all along.
Despite her name being cleared, to this day, she is brutally mocked by strangers in the street.
Lindy Chamberlain said she still cops taunts from strangers on the street. Photo / Channel 10
Speaking ahead of a new documentary mini-series into the crime story that captivated the world, she told the Sunday Project of the cruel taunts she still cops.
She was asked whether she thinks some Australians doubt her innocence.
"Obviously they do, they tell me so at times," she said. "It's only about three weeks ago since I got my last dingo howls."
Asked how she responds she said she "pretty much ignores it".
"What's the point? They've got the problem, not me," she said.
She was then asked whether it was painful to talk about what happened that night in 1980, four decades on.
"It's not my favourite topic," she said.
"It's a bit like going over the same things over and over again and I often think if I was asked a different line of questions you'd get totally different answers. And you'd go, 'Wow, I never knew that'."
She said she is never asked about her time in prison.
"Up until this mini series, I've only ever done one interview on prison.
The disappearance of Azaria Chamberlain 40 years ago arguably divided Australia and sparked conspiracy theories like never before.
"And I often think, 'Wow, there's three years of my life and people want to know everything but are they scared of that topic or what?'
"That amazes me. And they often tend not to ask you have you learnt anything? Have your opinions changed?"
"It was just like life was freeze-framed. And then I got out and normal life continued."
Host Lisa Wilkinson then told Chamberlain she was taken aback by her guest's humility and humour in the face of such adversity.
"Lindy, we've only been speaking to you for a couple of minutes and it's very clear you don't suffer fools and you have a very wicked sense of humour," she said.
"I think you're amazing. Lindy, having watched you over the last four decades go through everything you went through to have such an unfair set of circumstances surrounding you, the struggle, the spotlight, the pressure, the vilification, to meet you this evening for all of us has been an absolute joy and we so admire your dignity and your resolve.
"I know the documentary is going to be quite something to watch. I'm sure it will be very revealing for a lot of us."
An inquest into Azaria's disappearance in 1981 cleared her and her husband Michael of wrongdoing and found that a dingo had taken the baby. But a second inquest in 1982 found Lindy was guilty of murder.
Chamberlain was eight months pregnant when she was sentenced to life in prison for supposedly murdering Azaria by cutting her throat.
Lindy Chamberlain was a 32-year-old mother of three (she is pictured with husband Michael and sons Reagan and Aidan) when she returned to the family tent to find an empty bassinet.
In June 2012, an Australian coroner made a final ruling that a dingo took Azaria Chamberlain and killed her.
Since then she has given numerous interviews about what happened back in 1980.
She reduced comedian and TV host Anh Do to tears in an emotional interview on the ABC last year
Chamberlain told Do that her son Reagan, who was 4 when Azaria was taken, was in the tent with the baby when the dingo attacked.
A new documentary into the case called A Dingo's Got My Baby will be broadcast on Channel 10 in the near future.
