Media Release
NT Coroner does not buy DERM’s flawed ‘habituation = aggression’ argument
Date: Tuesday 12th June.2012
National Dingo Preservation and Recovery Program (NDPRP) (Inc. A0051763G )
Today, the Northern Territory Coroner, Ms Elizabeth Morris, concluded that on the balance of probabilities, the infant Azaria Chamberlain, was attacked and taken by a dingo in August 1980.
It is clear, however, that the Coroner did not accept the position of the Chamberlain’s attorney that dingoes that become familiar with humans become aggressive towards them. The Chamberlain’s attorney had borrowed this flawed line of argument directly from the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management’s flawed Fraser Island Dingo Management Strategy. The Corner was informed by the NDPRP about the unsubstantiated nature of this claim. Ms Morris declared that the reasons for the dingo’s behaviour in the Azaria Chamberlain incident were beyond the scope of her investigation.
The coroner reasonably says that various wildlife and park management authorities around Australia are responsible for balancing the needs of visitors and wildlife.
Jennifer Parkhurst says; This is a fair statement, and we can take note of similarities in the circumstances of both the Clinton Gage case and that of Azaria Chamberlain, suggesting the management of dingoes by parks authorities may have been a factor in both cases.
It should not be assumed that the cause was anything inherent in the nature of the dingo, when similar circumstances, including dingo management, are found in each case.
The first similarity is that the parents of the children involved did not maintain adequate surveillance of their children in a situation where dingoes were known to be present.
The other similarity is the possibility of food stress on the dingoes. Just weeks before the Chamberlain incident and the Gage incident, dingoes’ food supplies were stopped or interfered with.
Michael Chamberlain himself said with regards to the Gage case that ‘to feed dingoes is a pretty unwise thing, it’s even more unwise to stop feeding them’ … and as a consequence of cessation of feeding: ‘within a few weeks of that our daughter was dead.’
On Fraser Island, restriction of food sources commenced in 1994 and a Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service ranger warned that they would be left with hungry dingoes (Price 1994).
Lethal control is another likely contributing factor, because of the social upheaval it causes among the animals.
Indeed this was the case for both Azaria Chamberlain and Clinton Gage.
Lethal control of dingoes began on Fraser four years prior to the death of Clinton Gage and at Uluru three years prior to the death of Azaria.
I am completely neutral about whether a dingo killed Azaria Chamberlain. I believe that factors relating to the management of dingoes in each case, and inadequate parental supervision, rather than the character of the dingo, that led to these fatalities.
I hope that these findings bring some closure to the Chamberlain family.
Jennifer Parkhurst: President. NDPRP & SFID: fidingo@bigpond.net.au
Dr Ernest Healy: Vice-President NDPRP: ernest.healy@monash.edu
National Dingo Preservation and Recovery Program Inc. A0051763G