Lindy wishes she had slept in the car - Ninemsn

More than 30 years after her daughter Azaria disappeared in the desert, Lindy Chamberlain still cries when she recalls the tragic circumstances.

Speaking on Nine Network's A Current Affair on Wednesday, she said she wished she had slept in the car with her three children in central Australia the night Azaria was believed to have been taken by a dingo.

A new inquest is being held to finally try to discover what happened to nine-weeks-old Azaria on August 17, 1980.

Mrs Chamberlain, now Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton after remarrying, said that on a previous visit she had slept in the car because of the dingoes in the area.

She said after Azaria was put to sleep in the tent with her brother Reagan, four, her other son Aidan, six, was hungry so she went with him to the nearby BBQ.

That's when it's alleged the dingo struck.

"If he had not wanted something to eat he would have been in the tent and awake and they say if you say something it could scare (dingoes) and they could attack.

"I could have lost three children that night - it could have been worse," she said fighting back tears.

Mrs Chamberlain-Creighton has always maintained that she saw a dingo leaving her tent on the night Azaria went missing.

She was convicted over Azaria's death in Australia's most famous murder trial but the verdict was overturned three years later when the baby's matinee jacket was found 4km from the campsite near Ayers Rock (Uluru).

An emotional Mrs Chamberlain-Creighton said she had been told that if she pleaded guilty "I could go home".

She said she refused because she didn't want her children to go through life thinking their mother was a murderer.

Azaria's father, Michael, said the family was made the "patsy" because if it was proved dingoes would attack children, tourism would suffer.

"There were four hotels out there and money had been loaned to the Northern Territory government," Dr Chamberlain said.

"I think someone said to them `fix this up - it might affect tourism, you have to get a conviction because you can't have dingoes, or the fear of them, running around killing kids'."

Coroner Elizabeth Morris will conduct the new inquest, which will start on Friday and represents the final legal chapter in the case.

The NT Coroner's office said it was reopening the inquest into Azaria's death after information provided by the girl's parents in relation to dingo attacks on infants and young children.

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