Yesterday Frank Morris, a policeman on duty at Uluru the night Azaria vanished, said he still believed there was human intervention in the case, and that somebody had moved clothing the baby had been wearing.
"We don't know who," he said. "That is the $64,000 question."
Morris also said of the inquest's finding: "If you go to court enough times you are bound to get a win sooner or later."
The disappearance of baby Azaria from a tent on the east face of Uluru-Ayers Rock on August 17, 1980, is also woven into the dark mythology of the Australian Outback, with tales of mysterious murders and disappearances.
The most recent echo was the disappearance of British tourist Peter Falconio near remote Barrow Creek in 2001: accusations were levelled at his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, amid reported Falconio sightings, and claims that the man convicted of his murder, Bradley Murdoch, was framed.
The appalling nature of Azaria's disappearance from the haunting sandstone mass of Uluru guaranteed the case global attention and speculation extended even to accusing Michael Chamberlain, a Seventh Day Adventist pastor, of ritual sacrifice.
But the legal focus of the case was the likelihood of a dingo invading a campsite to take a baby for food, running against existing scientific knowledge of the wild dog's behaviour.
The jury that convicted the Chamberlains was told a dog had been heard growling nearby before Lindy Chamberlain placed Azaria in the family's tent.
Searchers found dog tracks and drag marks, and the baby's blood and dingo hairs in the tent. Aboriginal tracker Nui Minyintiri said the dingo he followed "was carrying the baby for sure".
But the jury instead accepted what later proved to be flawed forensic evidence, and the argument that because there was no known precedent "there was an inherent unlikelihood of an occurrence of such a nature".
New evidence of aggressive, at times fatal, dingo behaviour has since emerged.
Noting that dingoes had attacked a number of children in the months preceding Azaria's disappearance - although not causing serious injury - Coroner Morris said there had been 239 dingo attacks since 1990 and that three children had died since 2001.
These included a 9-year-old boy on Queensland's Fraser Island, a 2-year-old girl who died from blood loss after being attacked by a part-dingo crossbreed, and a 22-month-old girl killed by a dingo-labrador cross in 2006.
Morris also said the case illustrated the need for a wider list of verdicts in Australia beyond traditional English findings that included unlawful homicide, lawful homicide, suicide, misadventure, accident, natural causes and an open finding.
She said that in Azaria's case misadventure and accident did not reflect circumstances in which a person had been taken or attacked by an animal - yet in Australia these were not uncommon.
In the decade to last November there had been 254 animal-related deaths, many caused by sharks, crocodiles and other reptiles, dogs, dingoes, bees and jellyfish.
"It is evident that the traditional forms of finding should be expanded to include being taken or attacked by an animal," Morris said.
In Azaria's case, she said the evidence was sufficiently adequate, clear, cogent and exact, excluding all other possibilities.
"Shortly after Mrs Chamberlain placed Azaria in the tent a dingo - or dingoes - entered the tent, took Azaria, and carried and dragged her from the immediate area."
She returned a landmark finding that the cause of Azaria's death was as the result of being attacked and taken by a dingo.
32 years to find the truth
* Baby Azaria disappears from a tent on Uluru on the night of August 17, 1980, after witnesses heard dingoes. Searchers followed dingo tracks and drag marks into the desert.
* First inquest finds a dingo took the baby, but the Northern Territory Supreme Court overturns the finding.
* A second inquest surmises Lindy and Michael Chamberlain killed Azaria and tried to make it look like a dingo attack.
* In October 1982 Lindy Chamberlain is convicted of Azaria's murder and sentenced to life. Michael Chamberlain is convicted as an accessory.
* The following month Lindy gives birth to daughter Khalia, her fourth child. Khalia is taken into care after her mother returns to jail from hospital.
* Appeals to the Federal and High Courts are dismissed.
* In 1986 Azaria's missing matinee jacket is found near a dingo's lair, prompting Lindy's release from jail and the remittance of her sentence.
* A royal commission finds that evidence supports a dingo attack and that Lindy's guilt had not been proved beyond reasonable doubt.
* In 1988 the Chamberlains' convictions are overturned.
* A third inquest in 1995 finds the prosecution's evidence had failed to meet the required standard of proof for conviction.
* Yesterday's inquest finds a dingo was responsible.
THE FINDINGS
Text of Northern Territory coroner Elizabeth Morris' findings into the death of Azaria Chamberlain:
"The name of the deceased was Azaria Chantel Loren Chamberlain, born in Mt Isa, Queensland, on 11 June 1980.
"She was the daughter of Michael Leigh Chamberlain and Alice Lynne Chamberlain.
"Azaria Chamberlain died at Uluru, then known as Ayers Rock, on 17 August 1980.
"The cause of her death was as the result of being attacked and taken by a dingo."
Recommendations: "It is obvious, not just from these findings, but from other injuries and deaths since, dingoes can and do cause harm to humans. The reason for this behaviour, either on 17 August 1980 or since is beyond the scope of this inquest.
"Given the length of time since the death of Azaria, I do not intend to make any recommendations in relation to public safety and the control or management of dingoes in areas frequented by members of the public.
"It is also not appropriate to make any comment on animal management practices at the time in and around the Uluru area.
"Various wildlife and park management authorities around Australia are responsible for accommodating and balancing the needs of visitors and animals, including native wildlife. It is appropriate that they take measures to manage the now identified risks."
Dated this 12th day of June 2012 Elizabeth Morris, Coroner
- AAP
