~~** Crikey - Croc's Rule! **~~

Steve Irwin - The Croc Hunter!
1962 - 2006

Name: Stephen Robert Irwin
Born: 22-Feb-1962
Birthplace: Victoria, Australia
Died: 4-Sep-2006
Location of death: Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia
Cause of death: Accident
Remains: Buried, Australia Zoo
Occupation: Naturalist, TV Personality
Nationality: Australian

Australian Naturalist and TV personality Steve Irwin is better known as "The Crocodile Hunter", the blond, khaki-clad, and slightly hyperactive wildlife warrior whose daring stunts, wide-eyed enthusiasm, and boyish good looks have captured the hearts of roughly 200 million viewers in over 30 countries around the world. In 2002, Irwin and his wife, Terri, took their act to the big screen with the film Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course. In addition to their onscreen activities, the Irwins oversee the running of their highly popular wildlife park, Australia Zoo.

Steve Irwin was born 22 February 1962 in Essendon, located west of Melbourne, Australia. Although his father Bob was officially a plumber, and his mother Lynn a maternity nurse, the family's consuming passion was rescuing and rehabilitating local wildlife. In 1970 the hobby became a full time operation, as the Irwins, now relocated to Queensland, opened the Beerwah Reptile Park (now "Australia Zoo"). Steve Irwin recalls how the family home was itself a mini zoo and wildlife hospital, with makeshift marsupial "pouches" slung over the backs of chairs and snakes stashed everywhere.

The young Irwin meanwhile came to share his parents' obsession with wild creatures, and he soon displayed an uncanny rapport with them, able to sense their moods and preferences intuitively. This ability to sense animal behavior led the young Steve to try his own hand capturing risky reptiles. Though initially alarmed, his father began tutoring him in crocodile capture. As a young man Steve put these skills to work in the rogue crocodile relocation project run by the Queensland government. Although he eventually claimed the title The Crocodile Hunter, Irwin's methods differed drastically to those of earlier claimants to such titles. That is, rather than ending up as table fare and handbags, the crocs bagged by Irwin were later released, unharmed, in a new home deeper in the wild -- or at the Irwins' reptile park.

Able to boast that he and his father had captured or raised every croc in the park, Steve Irwin took over management of the animal park in 1991. In that same year he met a lovely American, Terri Raines, on vacation from her own wildlife rehab center in the U.S. Marrying eight months later, the pair opted to go crocodile trapping for their honeymoon. They invited a camera crew along to film the expedition, which later become the first episode of their hit television show The Crocodile Hunter. In 2002 Steve and Terri played themselves in Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, a fictional tale of wildlife conservationists battling crocs and rogue CIA agents to retrieve a fallen satellite.

In 1998 the Irwins welcomed the addition of daughter Bindi Sue Irwin (allegedly named after "Bindi", a large female croc at the Irwin's Australia Zoo, and "Sui", the Irwins' beloved dog, now deceased), and again in 2003 with son Bob Irwin. What mattered most to Steve was - Family, Animals, Conservation and most importantly FUN!

THE DAY MY HEART STOPPED.... September 4 - 2006!

While filming an undersea documentary for Animal Planet on the Batt Reef, off North Queensland, Australia, Steve Irwin died in a freak accident when a sting-ray stung him in the chest. Irwin was snorkelling in shallow water above the ray, itself some 8 feet long and a yard across, when the animal unexpectedly reared its spine and struck Irwin near the heart. Irwin had enough time to pull the barb from his chest, but died immediately thereafter. Stings from this animal are rarely fatal unless they puncture the heart or stomach.

Fellow Workers of Steve's Zoo pay
tribute at the Public Memorial Service
held at Australia Zoo

Family Tree: Father: Robert Irwin Mother: Lyn (d. 2002 car accident) Wife: Terri Irwin (m. 4-Jun-1992, two children) Daughter: Bindi Sue Irwin (b. 24-Jul-1998) Son: Bob Irwin (b. 1-Dec-2003)

Floral Tributes flood into
Australia Zoo for days after the tragedy...

Here's a song which was written a few years ago, by an Aussie Country Singer/Song writer named Kasey Chambers, about our beloved Croc Hunter.

Follow You Home

In the year of 62 the land received a soul
A baby cried, a mother smiled,
A hero made of gold
A heart like a burning flame
Beats like an old steam train
Bound to the north by chain
Silver lining

As the boy because a man
The child inside remained
High on life with wide eyes open
A smile that could dry up the rain
A name that would now ring true
Like a sun on a sky of blue
The khaki legend grew
Ten feet tall

With heart in hand
You bridge horizons
You paint the wild
Mother nature rises
You walk alone
But I will follow you home

If the earth could mould
A man underneath the perfect sky
Like a diamond from the ground
An image of you would rise
Bearing a will of steel
Roll like an iron wheel
Teaching the world to feel
Heart and soul

With heart in hand
You bridge horizons
You paint the wild
Mother nature rises
You walk alone
But I will follow you home

We love you Steve - you certainly "Changed the World....."

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