In 2019 a rare interview from my mother was released via the podcast “A Perfect Storm: the true history of the Chamberlains” throughout several episodes. What made this interview unique was the sincerity, honesty and diligent attention to detail. When I was four or five Sally gave her only other interview after a stranger had published slander to ruin her credibility as a witness. It was at the height of a media frenzy that would be played out like a soap opera and consume the attention of a nation. The interview released in the podcast was done without bias or prejudice, and encompasses some of the raw emotions my family has lived with including sorrow and grief. My mother had no idea about podcasts and this is how I struck up a conversation with the interviewer, John Buck.
Commemoration
After some encouragement, I went around to dad’s place and went through the old slide collection. Dusting off ten slides that were taken at Uluru (Ayers Rock) on 17 August 1980. We headed off from Alice Springs in the morning and arrived around midday. For my parents it was the trip of a lifetime and I was 17 months old. I was small and sickly, and due to be placed in a tent half an hour after Azaria was taken. One moment my parents were having a wonderful evening and the next my mother heard the part cry and saw the scene left in the tent. For years I have carried a personal grief and it has taken a long time to understand that the tragedy was also a nation’s grief. On the fortieth year of remembrance I released the slides that had never been seen and fifty poems.
THE LEGACY OF ZYANTHIA 