Steve Irwin

It is five years ago to the date that Steve Irwin died from a stingray barb in a part of the Great Barrier Reef known as the Batt Reef. I remember that morning well: it was cool and sunny outside, and my brother and I turned my computer on to check the news as we normally did and were shocked to see the majority of news headlines reporting “Crocodile Hunter dies”.

Years ago, we used to watch Animal Planet frequently, with our favourite shows being The Crocodile Hunter and The Jeff Corwin Experience. We were always fascinated by the animals and places seen in each episode: we would be happy when learning about an interesting new animal, but upset when we learnt that the said animal was endangered. We did become fans of Steve Irwin and had a lot of respect for him and his work, and after the Crocodile Hunter, we watched The Crocodile Hunter Diaries, a show covering the day-to-day activities at Australia Zoo.

We ended up talking about him all day when he died, and we watched several episodes of The Crocodile Hunter and The Crocodile Hunter Diaries in the subsequent Steve Irwin marathon on Animal Planet, plus the memorial service and an abundance of other shows about him. I remember the Internet being exceedingly difficult to navigate on the day of his death with tens, possibly even hundreds of millions of people logging on to read about him.

To this day I think Steve Irwin was, and still is, a strong net positive to the world: while his critics opposed his handling of animals (and I can understand their point), his documentaries of nature did educate millions of people of what issues the environment faces; he cared about nature, and through his work and influence, he helped others care about nature too. One fact that we did not know about him until after his death was his buying up of huge swaths of land so that it would be safe from development, and thus, safe for the flora and fauna inhabiting it.

I have read in recent years that Australia Zoo has run into problems, most notably financial difficulties. I think it would be more than just a shame if the zoo ever closed, and I hope the work Steve Irwin did there will not come to an end and be left to live on in memory.