Steve Irwin: Remembering the Crocodile Hunter 10 years after his death

WHEN Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray off Port Douglas on September 4, 2006, the shock of it was surreal. The Crocodile Hunter the world knew and loved was gone.

Steve Irwin and daughter Bindi with a Bengal tiger cubs at Australia Zoo. (AAP Image/Tony Phillips)

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WHEN Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray in the waters off Port Douglas in Far North Queensland on September 4, 2006, the suddenness, the shock of it, was surreal.

The 44-year-old Crocodile Hunter the world knew and loved was gone.

Award-winning journalist Matthew Condon will take a look back at Irwin’s life and legacy as part of a special tribute on the 10th anniversary of his death this weekend.

“He was a knockabout bloke from Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast who became world famous,” Condon says.

“He was a conservationist with a limitless passion for the planet and its creatures. With his wildlife documentaries we saw him grow rich. Yet he still lived in the house he grew up in as a child in the grounds of Australia Zoo, and saw his money as a means to protecting wildlife, purchasing thousands of hectares of bush to establish reserves.”

Irwin’s best friend also reveals what it was like growing up with the Crocodile Hunter, and his manager John Stainton gives his most revealing interview since the tragic accident.

Coverage will run online at couriermail.com.au, in Saturday’s The Courier-Mail and the Sunday Mail and our mobile and tablet apps, and include an interactive Steve Irwin picture tribute and a chance for readers to post their own memories of the Crocodile Hunter.

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