Bob Irwin reduced to tears at his book launch, reveals he is still estranged with Bindi and Robert

WITH his first book, 77-year-old Bob Irwin hopes to leave a few clues about his character and values for the internationally famous grandchildren he no longer sees.

WITH his first book, 77-year-old Bob Irwin hopes to leave a few clues about his character and values for the internationally famous grandchildren he no longer sees, Bindi and Robert Irwin, children of “Crocodile Hunter” Steve.

He hopes also to leave the same legacy for his other five grandchildren by his two daughters, Joy and Mandy. He has seven grandchildren in all — not just the two who enjoy the lion’s share of the limelight.

The other five know him better and know their grandfather’s passion for conservation shaped the man who became an Australian legend before his untimely death on a Queensland reef in 2006 after being struck in the chest by a stingray barb.

Bob Irwin at the launch of Bob Irwin’s memoir The last crocodile hunter: A father and son legacy at Crows Nest. Picture: Craig Wilson

Had Bob stuck with his former profession, plumbing, and not thrown in the towel in 1972 and dragged wife Lyn and three youngsters to Queensland from Melbourne, Steve Irwin would likely never have emerged from obscurity to become one of the nation’s best known and best loved conservationists.

“Yes, he might have followed me into plumbing,” Bob said yesterday with a touch of nostalgia while launching his book in Sydney. “With that one random decision, we all changed. Isn’t life funny.”

A career as a plumber might not have been any safer than crocodile and stingray hunting adds Bob.

Bob abandoned plumbing after having his own near death experience while working in a trench: “I got buried in a trench — that was the catalyst for the life change and why we packed up and headed to Queensland to open a reptile park that I didn’t known anything about.”

Bob remains estranged from his two grand kids Robert and Bindi. Picture: Chris McCormack

Irwin confirmed his long estrangement from Bindi and Robert continues to the present day.

“That’s life,” he said, not keen to be drawn on the subject.

Last year Bindi touched on the rift stating she believed the fallout was over Bob’s “grief”: “When my dad passed away he (Bob) chose to distance himself from everything that Dad loved the most,” she told on online media outlet.

With his new book, The Last Crocodile Hunter: A Father and Son Legacy, Irwin has made to close the gap.

“(Bindi and Robert) will grow up and they might come to understand me better for my having written this book,” he said.

“A lot of things that happen over the years you tend to keep private. People don’t know what you think. My view of conservation I wanted to get across while I still can for future generations.”

Bob Irwin was reduced to tears as he spoke about the book at the launch. Picture: Craig Wilson

The book, he adds, is for young Australians and parents alike: “To remind them about the importance of education — why we need to teach children about the importance of conservation for the survival of wildlife.”

As to his grief, he deals with it every day.

“We were very close, Steve and I. We were way past father and son. We went way beyond that. There isn’t a day that goes past that I don’t reflect at some stage on the times we had. We may learn to adjust but I will never get over it.”