Robert Irwin: ‘Mate, it’s scary every single time’

It’s no surprise that Robert Irwin has been named as one of the GQ Men Of The Year award winners — but some may be shocked to see him out of the khakis and into designer menswear. Read our exclusive interview.

Exclusive: Robert Irwin has been named as GQ’s Social Force of the Year ahead of this year’s Men of the Year awards, in partnership with Boss, which will be held at Bondi Pavilion on Wednesday.

Irwin can be revealed as an early winner ahead of what has become one of the most anticipated awards nights in the Australian social calendar.

Bringing together the biggest stars of the year – last year’s awards saw the likes of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Russell Crowe, musician Fisher and runner Nedd Brockmann rub shoulders – the MOTY Awards are a red carpet extravaganza and a celebration of the people who changed the game in the past 12 months.

It’s no surprise that Irwin has been named as one of the winners, given his contributions to wildlife conservation, but some may be shocked to see him out of the khakis and into designer menswear.

Wearing Australian designer Alix Higgins and Prada in exclusive images from the GQ MOTY special edition magazine photo shoot, Irwin looks like a different man from the one we’re used to seeing rescue snakes and feeding crocodiles.

Robert Irwin, ahead of the GQ Men of the Year awards. Picture: Joshua Bentley/GQ Australia

“My soul and my heart is khaki, that’s for sure,” Irwin told GQ Australia, hinting that the shoot was riskier than what the public may be used to.

“But I embrace my own individual style and I’m not afraid every now and again to get a bit edgy and to try something different.

“It’s weird, even though I’ve literally been born into it — that Royal Family effect — it still doesn’t make sense.

“I don’t understand why paparazzi follow me into the grocery store and report on what I buy. Like, who cares?”

The 20-year-old son of the late, internationally beloved conservationist Steve “The Crocodile Hunter” Irwin, has just returned after a seven-hour drive from Mourachan, one of three natural wildlife refuges the zoo owns in Australia.

“Climate change is taking a toll on our country as a whole,” he says, “And our area of natural wildlife refuge is one of the last safe havens.”

Picture: Joshua Bentley/GQ Australia

Picture: Joshua Bentley/GQ Australia

When people think of Steve Irwin, and now Robert, they think of someone tangling with crocodiles and wrangling snakes. What they don’t see is the work.

When Steve was Robert’s age, he started going up to the Cape York peninsula – to an area since named the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve – and getting his hands dirty, working with local communities and saving the crocs people wanted dead.

“He’d been spending months at a time out in the bush, rescuing crocs, honing his craft, his skills and then becoming, you know, the most well-known wildlife conservationist in history,” says Irwin.

Now that work is Robert’s to continue.

Steve Irwin passed away in 2006 — a tragedy that rocked the nation.

Schools and offices stopped to watch the news on television. More than 300 million people tuned in to his public memorial. Robert was three months shy of his third birthday, already famous and now without a father.

Irwin has proven himself a natural on social media, displaying an earnest charisma when interacting with animals. Picture: Joshua Bently/GQ Australia

“When you lose someone like that and it’s such a public thing – you’re three years old, you’re growing up without a father – it’s incredibly difficult. It is indescribably difficult,” he explains.”

But on the other side of that, now, when people come up to me and share a story of when they met Dad, tell me how much his documentary meant to them, I almost feel like I get a little piece of him back.

“He’s not around anymore to push his message – now it’s my job.”

And he’s doing it his way. On TikTok and Instagram, where Irwin has a combined 11 million followers, he has proven himself a natural, recording quick videos with an earnest charisma whenever he interacts with animals.

A recent video, where he teared up introducing the first Irwin’s turtle ever bred in a zoological facility — a species named after his father, who discovered it — racked up 13 million views on Instagram.

“The camera is just another person,” says Irwin of his natural presence, “It’s a person you have a conversation with.”

Beyond social media, he hosts the live feeding sessions at Australia Zoo with some of the same crocs his father first rescued.

“Mate, it is scary every single time,” he admits of getting in the enclosure.

“It’s that adrenaline rush that you get and for me that closeness to my Dad, to my family legacy — I really feel it.”

Read the full story in GQ, available exclusively in The Australian on Friday, and follow all the action from the 2023 GQ MOTY awards at GQ.com.au/men-of-the-year