Or the pint-sized lead singer of The Crocmen, busting out their seminal 2008 hit Monkey in the Jungle. Or – and perhaps this is the most indelible image of a young Bindi – the tiny girl with the unwavering voice speaking at her father Steve Irwin’s funeral in 2006.

“I understand it,” Bindi, now 26, says.

“I don’t know if I will ever change from being the Jungle Girl, or the Kidfitness girl, or the girl with the crimped hair – and, by the way, I embrace the crimped pigtails, they were just fine,” she laughs.

These days, Bindi laughs easily, and often, but it wasn’t so long ago her signature good humour was sorely tested, as the girl who grew up in the public eye privately battled endometriosis.

“It started when I was 14 years of age,” Bindi reflects, “and for years doctors said to me: ‘This is just how women feel’, and I began to believe that narrative.”

Endometriosis is an inflammatory disease where tissue which is very similar to the endometrium, or lining of the uterus, occurs outside of it.

It affects one in nine Australian women, and it affects every one of them differently.

In Bindi’s case it was a decade of brutal pain that at times left her doubled over and, when her daughter Grace was born in 2021, struggling to care for her. It was the birth of Grace that saw Bindi redouble her search for answers, and finally put a name to – and receive life-altering surgery for – the disease which had caused her such distress for so long.

Last year, Bindi spoke to Qweekend about her endometriosis, and now says that while it was initially difficult to share her story, she knew that by telling it, “other women might get help”. They did – with many women sharing their own experiences with the well-known conservationist on her social media accounts.

“It is scary when you open up about your most vulnerable and painful times, when you talk about when you felt you were sitting in a very large hole and didn’t know if you were going to crawl out,” she says.

“I wasn’t sure what the response would be, but I also knew that if just one girl read my story and thought, ‘oh my goodness that sounds like me’ and it led them on the path to getting help, then it would be absolutely worth it.

“It took me so long to talk about it, nobody knew what was happening to me except my mum (Terri Irwin), my brother Robert and my husband Chandler (Powell).

“Everyone else thought I was becoming this flaky person because I would bow out of commitment after commitment at the last minute because I was in so much pain.”

Bindi says after years of “thinking it was all in my own head”, she knew that what happened to her must also be happening to other women.

“In some ways the response to telling my story was devastating because so many women came forward. It broke my heart, some of their stories were identical to mine, some had taken even longer to get a diagnosis, and there was a plethora of women’s health issues shared with me, and with each other.

“It was women supporting other women, and that part of it was beautiful.”

Beautiful too, is Bindi’s life these days, free of crippling pain, free to enjoy motherhood, and having well and truly found her voice. She’s continued to speak out about women’s health issues, including the question parents of one child so often are asked – “When are you having another?”

“I think it’s so important to think about the hurt and pain that can lie behind that question,” Bindi says.

“When I went through endo and people would ask, ‘When are you and Chandler having another child?’ I used to think, ‘If you could see on the outside what it feels like on the inside you would never ask.’ It would completely change the way you approach somebody.

“You know, some people don’t want another child, some can’t have another child, and some people have gone through enormous loss and heartbreak before they have their much wanted child.” Bindi pauses, then adds: “I think you have to be kind in every part of life. If you have the urge to ask, take a second. If someone has good news to share, they’ll share it.”

Otherwise – although Bindi is far too polite to say so – zip it.

And right now, both Bindi and her husband Chandler, 28, are revelling in their one child – little Grace Warrior Irwin Powell, 3, a tiny, khaki-clad whirlwind of curiosity and delight, roaming Australia Zoos’ paths, just like her mamma did before her.

Bindi laughs again when recounting some of her daughter’s walks on the wild side. “I mean I know it’s not a normal childhood,” she says.

“I was Grace’s age almost exactly when it started kicking in that we live at the zoo, that we don’t come here every day the way other people do. Grace is definitely getting it now.

“When we travel she’ll say: ‘My home is the zoo? Are we going back to the zoo now?’ And the connection with our animals is absolutely becoming very real. We recently had to do a beach release of a sea turtle called Aurora who we had been treating at our hospital.

“Grace really loved her, she spent a lot of time with her. It took five of us to carry Aurora to the ocean, she is over 100kg, and Grace was there, and she was experiencing both the sadness of letting her friend go, and the happiness. The tears were welling up in Grace’s eyes, she was asking, ‘I can’t go with Aurora?’ and we explained that she was going back to her own family, and that she had to go by herself. I saw in Grace’s eyes that she understood.

“She is connecting to what we do and what our job is – instead of ‘wow this is an adventure’, she felt it in her soul, that’s the first time I saw that happen, that connection between her family and animals.”

It’s a connection shared with Powell, the American-born, then-professional wakeboarder she first met when he and his family visited Australia Zoo in 2013.

They struck up a friendship and kept in touch, eventually marrying in 2020, a love story reminiscent of when a young and instantly smitten Steve Irwin met a young American girl, Terri, visiting Australia Zoo in 1991. And, like that match, the Bindi/Chandler union is a solid one.

“I’m so lucky,” Bindi says.

“Chandler is the most consistently wonderful person I have ever met. Married life is a rollercoaster of emotion, great moments, devastating times, you need someone who is consistent at those times, and he is that person for me. He is my rock, and his kind heart has never wavered.”

He’s also adapted very well to a life in khaki.

“My mum’s sister put it best, I think,” Bindi says.

“She said, ‘It’s like Chandler was just born to be a part of your family and Australia Zoo. He is up for everything, feeding crocs, floods – when we have trees down we call Chandler, and he just rolls his sleeves up. He is so willing to be part of the hurricane that is our lives.”

And there is one other member of the Irwin clan currently experiencing that hurricane at full force – Bindi’s younger brother Robert.

At 21, Robert’s star has risen meteorically in the past couple of years, from hosting I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, to hitting the runway at Melbourne’s Fashion Festival, and becoming a global ambassador for Prince William’s conservation project, the Earthshot Prize. Steve and Terry Irwin’s son has also become, for want of a better word, a bit of a heart-throb. And just like every older sister in the world would, Bindi finds it a little … discombobulating. She laughs.

“I don’t drive with him anymore, he’s always surrounded by beautiful girls. It’s so funny, I mean, he’s my brother, what is going on?”

And despite some laughable (as anyone who spends any time with the two would know) reports of Bindi being envious of her brother’s increasingly high profile, she is instead utterly thrilled for him.

“Put this in bold and capital letters please. BINDI IS SO PROUD OF ROBERT. I cannot express how proud I am because he is so passionate about wildlife conservation, and everything he does is about spreading the message about that.

“My dad put it best because he said that one day Robert would take the football and run with it in his own way, and he has.

“Watching Robert grow and thrive, watching the way he is so similar to Dad in some ways, but also becoming his own man, I’m just so proud of him. He’s a great photographer, and an incredible artist. I have his paintings all over my house, and he is the best uncle to Grace.”

Bindi says that while her endometriosis experience and becoming a mother has meant she has taken a step back from her public life, she has loved watching her little brother take a step forward.

And besides, Robert Irwin’s big sister isn’t exactly slacking off herself. She remains an integral part of the massive organisation that is Australia Zoo and its global charity Wildlife Warriors supporting projects like the Black Mambas all-female, anti-poaching units in South Africa – and she has just written her first children’s book. Out in February next year, You are a Wildlife Warrior takes readers inside the gates of Australia Zoo, exploring its paths with Bindi and Grace.

“I started thinking about it when I was holding Grace as a newborn. I wanted to share our lives at the zoo, and hopefully kids will also learn something about conservation and the importance of protecting our wildlife along the way. It takes you on the journey of my life and Grace’s life. It was hard to write – how do you condense what we do, what special moments to include – but I’m really proud of it.

“It has been one of the most passionate projects in my life.” Bindi says that behind the book’s text and beautiful illustrations, is her own message to parents and children.

“My hope is that it inspires love for the natural world. We are so involved with technology and losing that connection with mother nature. I wanted to give kids that reminder to get outside to the wild places – we need those wild places now more than ever.”

The Irwin family, of course, are well acquainted with their wild side, travelling the world to film and spread their conservation message, and making their way each year to the remote Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve, the entire family, including Grace, going bush.

The 135,000ha reserve in Cape York is where the family conducts, in conjunction with scientists and students from around the world, bio-diversity and animal research, and tracks the health of its estuarine crocodile population.

“Grace loves it,” Bindi smiles, “she is camping with us, we keep her at a very large distance from the crocs, of course, but she gets involved, she gets her little notebook out, she writes in her own way ‘the croc is five feet, 10 inches’.”

It’s quite the exercise in logistics, this trip, and overseeing it all is Terri Irwin, who Bindi credits with keeping “everything going” including her family when Steve Irwin died from a stingray barb in September, 2006.

Bindi says: “She finds so much time for all of us, every day. We live and work together – we all have houses at the zoo, and when we catch up for dinner together we talk about the koala who needs an operation, what we will do at the zoo for kids in the school holidays, and our work with the Wildlife Warriors, our filming work, our conservation work, and Mum leads it all with such grace.”

But family is first. One night a week Grace has a sleepover at Terri’s house, and she just loves it. Grandma is pretty cool – how many grandmas do you know feed crocs?

“She is a badass, my mum, she’s like Sarah Connor, she is one badass woman.” So too – although she wouldn’t say it herself – is her daughter.

Like Terri, Bindi puts family first, continuing her father’s legacy in her own way, leading with her own wild heart.

To pre-order, follow this link.