God bless you, Stevo. I love you, mate.
Come Join Us
Come join us in the effort to save the world’s wildlife. You can find Wildlife Warriors on the Web at www.wildlifewarriors.org, or write to either of these addresses:
Wildlife Warriors Worldwide, World Headquarters
P.O. Box 29, Beerwah, Queensland 4519, Australia
Or:
Wildlife Warriors Worldwide USA
P.O. Box 11347
Eugene, OR 97400, USA
And remember, crocs rule!
Condolence
After Steve’s death I received letters of condolence from people all over the world. I would like to thank everyone who sent such thoughtful sympathy. Your kind words and support gave me the strength to write this book and so much more. Carolyn Male is one of those dear people who expressed her thoughts and feelings after we lost Steve. It was incredibly touching and special, and I wanted to express my appreciation and gratitude. I’m happy to share it with you.
It is with a still-heavy heart that I rise this evening to speak about the life and death of one of the greatest conservationists of our time: Steve Irwin. Many people describe Steve Irwin as a larrikin, inspirational, spontaneous. For me, the best way I can describe Steve Irwin is formidable. He would stand and fight, and was not to be defeated when it came to looking after our environment. When he wanted to get things done—whether that meant his expansion plans for the zoo, providing aid for animalsaffected by the tsunami and the cyclones, organizing scientific research, or buying land to conserve its environmental and habitat values—he just did it, and woe betide anyone who stood in his way. I am not sure I have ever met anyone else who was so determined to get the conservation message out across the globe, and I believe he achieved his aim. What I admired most about him was that he lived the conservation message every day of his life.
Steve’s parents, Bob and Lyn, passed on their love of the Australian bush and their passion for rescuing and rehabilitating wildlife. Steve took their passion and turned it into a worldwide crusade. The founding of Wildlife Warriors Worldwide in 2002 provided Steve and Terri with another vehicle to raise awareness of conservation by allowing individuals to become personally involved in protecting injured, threatened, or endangered wildlife. It also has generated a working fund that helps with the wildlife hospital on the zoo premises and supports work with endangered species in Asia and Africa.
Research was always high on Steve’s agenda, and his work has enabled a far greater understanding of crocodile behavior, population, and movement patterns. Working with the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and the University of Queensland, Steve was an integral part of the world’s first Crocs in Space research program. His work will live on and inform us for many, many years to come.
Our hearts go out to his family and the Australia Zoo family. It must be difficult to work at the zoo every day with his larger-than-life persona still very much evident. Everyone must still be waiting for him to walk through the gate. His presence is everywhere, and I hope it lives on in the hearts and minds of generations of wildlife warriorsto come. We have lost a great man in Steve Irwin. It is a great loss to the conservation movement. My heart and the hearts of everyone here goes out to his family.
Carolyn Male, Member for Glass House, Queensland, Australia
October 11, 2006
Glossary of Australian Terms
back block: the sticks; the back forty; remote acreage
billabong: oxbow river, slough, or watering hole
billy lid: child
bloke: man, guy
bloody: very, an intensifier
Bob’s your uncle: exclamation meaning “and you’re done!”
bore: underground well
brolga: large, gray crane
bull bar: heavy bar fixed to the front of a vehicle
capsule: infant car seat
caravan: trailer
chock-a-block: completely full
chough: crowlike bird
coldie: can of beer
cooee: traditional Australian call of “halloo!”
crikey: expression of surprise; “Wow!”
cuppa: cup of tea
currawong: ravenlike bird
dag: goofy person
daks: trousers
dam: pool, pond, or water hole
Digger: Australian soldier
doco: documentary
dunny: lavatory
dunny roll: toilet paper
esky: ice chest; short for “Eskimo”
fair dinkum, dinkum: true; real; genuine
footy: football (rugby)
freshie: freshwater crocodile
g’day: hello
good on you: good for you; well done
jabiru: large stork
joey: baby kangaroo, wombat, koala, or other marsupial baby
larrikin: good-time guy; prankster
lolly: a candy or a sweet-flavored treat
mate: buddy; friend
mozzie: mosquito
muster: round up sheep or cattle
paying out: making fun; teasing
phascogale: insectivorous Australian marsupial
Queenslander: raised house that usually has a large veranda or porch
right, she’ll be: it’ll be all right
roo: kangaroo
rufous bettong: small marsupial that can hop like a kangaroo
saltie: saltwater crocodile
spotty: spotlight
stacks: loads; tons
swag: bedroll; sleeping bag
Ute: pickup truck
windscreen: windshield
yabby: freshwater crayfish
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my children, Bindi and Robert, for patiently supporting me while I spent many evenings and weekends writing this book (or as Robert used to say, “Mum is doing her school-work.”).
Thanks also to those who helped entertain, feed, bathe, and wrangle my kids while I wrote (it does take a village!): Barry and Shelley Lyon, Emma Schell, Jeanette Covacevich, John and Bonnie Marineau, Brian and Sherri Marineau, April Harvie, Brian and Kate Coulter, Thelma Engle.
A special thank-you to my dear friend John Edward. If it wasn’t for you, this book would never have been written.
Thanks to my precious friends and family, who were my sounding boards: Wes Mannion, Frank and Joy Muscillo, John Stainton, Judi Bailey, Craig Franklin, Bob Irwin.
A huge thank-you to Kate Schell, who helped me assemble my first draft—there were 250,000 words of stories that made us laugh and cry. You took the journey with me.
I would also like to thank Gil Reavill, for taking nine hundred pages and helping me choose which stories to keep for the final draft. Natasha Stoynoff, you were ready to help as a collaborator. I hope we actually get to work together one day. And to Ursula Cary, thank you for flying all the way to Australia to help me catch crocs for research and make those final edits.
I’d like to extend a big thank-you to all the interesting people who helped to shape our lives and are included in the pages of this book.
And finally, a huge thank-you to my husband, Steve. You are now the angel leaning over my shoulder, whispering in my ear that I can do anything—you always believed in me.
Steve’s mother always said, “If I couldn’t see him, he was either on the roof or up in some tree.”
A young Irwin family: Steve, Joy, Lyn, Bob, and Mandy.
A young Steve. He jumped his first croc at only nine years old.
In the early days, Steve did all his crocodile work in the bush, on his own.
Steve and me, when we first met.
Walking Malina, my rescued cougar, on the beach in Oregon.
Malina and me, when I ran Cougar Country.
Our wedding day, June 4, 1992. From left to right: Julia Raines, Bob Irwin, me, Steve, Lyn Irwin, and Clarence Raines.
Mates for life: Wes and Steve.
Ste
ve was always hands-on with the construction work at the zoo.
Soul mates.
Steve and his “girlfriend,” Sui.
Meeting a Bennetts wallaby while filming in Tasmania.
Family, wildlife, and surfing—Steve’s three great loves.
“If I could be remembered for any one thing,” Steve said, “I’d like to be remembered as a good dad.”
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.
Steve in Antarctica…Where’s your coat?
Together in Texas, filming for the Travel Channel.
At 175 years old, Harriet was our oldest and dearest friend.
Steve’s greatest inspiration—his mother, Lyn.
Our last trip together, doing crocodile research in Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia.
Table of Contents
Copyright
Contents
Foreword
Chapter One: First Encounter
Chapter Two: Malina
Chapter Three: Rescue
Chapter Four: Burdekin
Chapter Five: The Crocodile Hunter
Chapter Six: Zoo
Chapter Seven: Stacks of Fun
Chapter Eight: Egg Stealing
Chapter Nine: “I Know What We Have to Do”
Chapter Ten: Animal Planet
Chapter Eleven: Bindi Sue
Chapter Twelve: The Crocodile Kid
Chapter Thirteen: On the Road Again
Chapter Fourteen: Coming Back
Chapter Fifteen: Baby Bob
Chapter Sixteen: Antarctica
Chapter Seventeen: The School of the Bush
Chapter Eighteen: Batt Reef
Chapter Nineteen: Steve’s Whale One
Come Join Us
Condolence
Glossary of Australian Terms
Acknowledgments