you beauty

I was saddened to hear of the death of Steve Irwin yesterday. In fact I was not the only person to shed a tear in my house when the news broke that he had been fatally wounded by a stingray while filming a new documentary in far North Queensland.
Effusive and charming and a little bit embarrassing. Every time he appeared on Leno I cringed a little, like having a crazy uncle who makes everyone laugh at him so that eventually they’ll laugh with him. He knew that. Irwin was fully aware that he could seduce people with his crazy monkey act and then get them to look at wildlife in a whole new way. I don’t think I ever really felt crocs were beautiful, but he did teach me that they were majestic and important. Crocs Rule!
A couple of years ago we took a road trip from Melbourne to Queensland and we stopped off at the Australia Zoo in the hope of catching Steve in action. We were disappointed to hear he was filming on the Galapagos Islands at the time. But we had a great day. Staff were lovely, food was fantastic and most of all the animals were happy and clearly very loved. Even I, not known for my love of wildlife had a hoot hanging with the kangaroos, watching the croc show and saying hi to possibly the most pampered wombat I have ever seen (his enclosure was like the Park Hyatt for wombats). The overwhelming feeling at that zoo was real happiness and a great respect for the environment. Even I found myself looking at these funny animals and tall eucalypts and thinking that I lived in the most amazing country in the world.
My twelve year old daughter was the first to hear and she announced ‘mum the crocodile hunter died!’ before her little chin started wobbling. See, in this house we loved him. He was joyous and energized and crazy and enthusiastic. He was madly in love with his wife and children, devoted to his parents and passionate about his animals. So rare is there a person who can only be described with such intense and effusive language.
We’ll miss you Steve.