The dingo did it - Azaria's parents win battle for justice

A day after what would have been their baby daughter's 32nd birthday, Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton and former husband Michael finally put three decades of heart-rending struggle behind them.

Yesterday's finding by Darwin Coroner Elizabeth Morris that a dingo did take 9-week-old Azaria from a tent on Uluru in 1980 has both exonerated the couple and created a precedent enabling inquests to determine that Australia's wild dogs can kill.

It also means that for the first time there is an official cause of death, overturning the previous open verdict and allowing Azaria's emotional parents to collect certificates specifying that the infant died "as the result of being attacked and taken by a dingo".

The battle began when Azaria disappeared on August 17, 1980 and continued through a court case that saw Lindy Chamberlain jailed for murder - and Michael Chamberlain convicted as an accessory - before being overturned on appeal, a royal commission, and four inquests.

Yesterday's finding almost brought Coroner Morris to tears.

"Please accept my sincere sympathy on the death of your special and loved daughter and sister Azaria," she told the Chamberlains and their son Aidan. "I'm so sorry for your loss. Time does not remove the pain and sadness of the death of a child."

Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton told a brief media conference that she was "relieved and delighted to come to the end of this saga".

And she warned of danger amid beauty.

"No longer will Australia be able to say that dingoes are not dangerous and only attack if provoked," she said. "We live in a beautiful country but it is dangerous and we would ask all Australians to be aware of this and take appropriate precautions, and not wait for someone else to do it for them."

Michael Chamberlain said Coroner Morris had spoken "for the dead on behalf of the living".

He said it had been a terrifying battle, at times bitter, but there was now some healing and a chance to put his daughter's spirit to rest.

"However, I am here to tell you that you can get justice, even when you think that all is lost - but truth must be on your side ...

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

"If you know you are right, never give up on getting it right when the serious issue could affect the life and livelihood of others."