Azaria Chamberlain was born
at 1.16 p.m. on Wednesday the 11th of June 1980 at Mt. Isa
Hospital, at a weight of 2880 grams (6 pounds 5 1/2 ounces). The mother was reported to have repeatedly
complained about the child being sick, stated that she was suffering
from pyloric stenosis, a ailment which closes the sphinctum and causes
vomiting. She would not heed hospital
staff when they told her the baby was completely normal. She allegedly told the staff
that her other children suffered form the same complaint and that she
had cured it herself when she had fallen down a hole carrying them as
babies. It is reported that she
appeared not to have cared for the baby, and at one stage did not feed
it for over eight hours. Registration of
the baby was never completed. When bringing the baby in
for a check-up she astounded the Sisters by having the baby dressed
completely in black. A doctor who treated
the baby said that she did not react like a normal mother. The same doctor said that he
looked up the name Azaria in a Dictionary of Names and Meanings and
found that it means ‘Sacrifice in the Wilderness.’ On visiting the library on
Saturday morning, I found that this book is in stock but has been
mislaid. It is believed is should be
available on Monday. The parents appeared on the
TV show ‘This Day Tonight” on Channel Seven, on Friday evening, 29
August 1980. Mrs. Chamblerlain allegedly
made the comment that the blanket which covered Azaria was a strong one
and difficult to cut with a knife. (The
blanket which we took possession of at Ayers Rock had numerous small
cuts in it which, even to the layman, looked more like cuts from a
sharp instrument than punctures one would expect from a dog’s teeth.) To date we have actually not
one witness who can say they saw the baby at Ayers Rock, but people who
have assumed she was holding a baby when they have seen her holding a
white bundle to her breast. The impression given in her
statement to me was that the two boys climbed the Rock with their
father, and she was left at the bottom with the baby in the car. Later on in her statement, she states when she
was at the Fertility Caves with the baby (when the dingo ‘cased’ it). The two boys were with her but the husband was
not. They would appear to have descended
by themselves. Where the clothes were
found was not more than four hundred metres from there.
Constable Morris was instructed to check out the floor of
the caves for patches of soft earth, etcetera. Many
tourists have been visited them since, and he has, no doubt, contacted
them. He is also reinterviewing the ranger
who saw Mrs. Chamberlain at the bottom of the climb that Sunday
afternoon, who saw her holding the apparel of a baby.
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