Remembering Australia's Great Ambassador - Steve Irwin...
Steve taught children and adults alike to love and respect our planet and animals
September 04, 2006

Steve Irwin - An Extraordinary Life - Slide Show

As members of the Australian expatriate community, it is with sadness that we mourn the sudden and tragic death of Steve Irwin, famously known as "The Crocodile Hunter".

An Australian naturalist and television personality, Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray during a diving expedition off the Australian coast. Mr Irwin, 44, died after being struck in the chest by the stingray's barb while he was filming a documentary in Queensland's Great Barrier Reef.

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 recalled how, even with the advent of a formal facility, 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 second-guess animal behavior, coupled with his enthusiastic admiration of Bob Irwin's real life "action hero" escapades with crocs and venomous snakes, led the young Steve to try his own hand capturing the 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 facility 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. 

Steve was known for his television show The Crocodile Hunter and his work with native Australian wildlife. Steve was an Aussie icon and a staunch ambassador for Australia, and was able to share the beauty of our country with millions of people around the world. Mr Irwin had built up what was a small reptile park in Queensland into what is now Australia Zoo, a major centre for Australian wildlife, and a global tourist destination for many. It's a huge loss to not only Australia, but the world - he was a wonderful character, he was a passionate environmentalist.

Steve is recognised as one of the great Australian's who lifted the profile of Australia on the global stage. 

The Aussie community in Nashville and our friends all across the state of Tennessee are saddened by this tragic loss. Our thoughts and prayers go to Steve's family and loved ones.