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"I don't want Daddy's passion to ever end. I want to help endangered wildlife just like he did.'' Mr Irwin's eight-year-old daughter Bindi Irwin. "Please don't grieve for Steve - he's at peace now. But I would like you to grieve for the animals - the animals have lost the best friend they ever had, and so have I.'' Mr Irwin's father Bob Irwin. "In everything he did he was direct, he was genuine and oh so Australian and that is what we loved about him.'' Prime Minister John Howard. "And as we share this celebration and we honour this...

Recorded tribute by Russell Crowe Prime Ministers Speech The Leader of the Opposition Kim Beazley Prime Minister John Howard Terri Irwin with Bindi and Bob Tribute by local indigenous people John Williamson singing Senator Ian Campbell, Australia's Minister for the Environment Wes Mannion Bob Irwin, Steve's Father Bindi Irwin, Steve's daughter Anthony Field, The Blue Wiggle A young fan in the crowd

Steve Irwin's Memorial Service to Air on Animal Planet TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, FROM 9-10 P.M. ET/PT. Get a reminder! (Silver Spring , MD) — Animal Planet is airing Steve Irwin's memorial service exclusively in the U.S., commercial-free, on Tuesday, September 19, from 9-10 p.m. ET/PT, with an encore broadcast airing 12-1 a.m. ET/PT. The memorial service, entitled Steve Irwin: He Changed Our World, will be a same-day broadcast (with a two-hour delay) of the event Wednesday morning in Australia. The public memorial service for the beloved animal conservationist and television personality is being held in the "Crocoseum," a 5,500-seat stadium...

A spare seat will be left beside Steve Irwin's widow and children as a special way to remember the Crocodile Hunter during his memorial service. An estimated 5,000 people are expected to attend Wednesday's service at Australia Zoo, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, while millions are expected to watch the telecast live around the world. Guests at the zoo's Crocoseum will include Prime Minister John Howard and Queensland Premier Peter Beattie. Mr Irwin's manager and long time friend John Stainton would not reveal many details about the service, but said a spare seat would be left for Mr Irwin beside his...

ANIMAL rights extremists have called Steve Irwin a cheap reality star who exploited animals. The comments have infuriated The Daily Telegraph readers who have been commenting below. The blast comes just days after Germaine Greer said the Crocodile Hunter was an "embarrassment''. Now pro-animal organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is now also dancing on Irwin's grave. PETA activist Dan Matthews said he was not surprised he was killed by an animal. "It comes as no shock at all that Steve Irwin should die provoking a dangerous animal,'' Mathews said. "He made a career out of antagonising frightened...

THOUSANDS of people are expected to camp out at booking outlets tomorrow night for tickets to Steve Irwin's memorial service. The life of the Crocodile Hunter will be honoured at a special public memorial service next Wednesday at the family's Sunshine Coast animal park, Australia Zoo. The memorial will be held at the park's Crocoseum, which was built by Mr Irwin and holds a capacity of 5500. Three thousand tickets – a maximum of four per person – will be released to the public at no charge from 9am (AEST) on Friday at Australia Zoo's box office and Ticketek outlets...

TERRI IRWIN, the widow of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin today spoke for the first time about the loss of her "soulmate" in a freak accident off the north Queensland coast.In a statement read by her father-in-law Bob Irwin today, Mrs Irwin described her late husband as as her "soul mate" and thanked the community for their "overwhelming outpouring of love, support and prayers". Bob Irwin today announced the details of a memorial service for the larger than life conservationist and television personaility. It will be held at Australia Zoo on Queensland's Sunshine Coast next Wednesday.Irwin, 44, died last Monday when...

STEVE Irwin died from a stingray attack just weeks before work began on his dream of building the world's biggest animal hospital. The Crocodile Hunter had planned the $4 million hospital in the grounds of his Australia Zoo at Beerwah in Queensland as a tribute to his mother Lyn, who died in a car accident six years ago. Now staff at the existing animal hospital have vowed to see his expansion plans through as Irwin's legacy to Australian conservation. "To make Steve proud we want to make it bigger and better than even he dreamed," said Australian Wildlife Hospital manager...

I WAS standing just down from the radio station 3RRR at ... in Melbourne when my phone rang.... I flipped open the batphone ... and found out that Steve Irwin was dead. I swore loudly as the moment fused, possibly forever, into memory. Something similar happened millions of times over in this country alone. Perhaps hundreds of millions of times across the world. You almost certainly remember exactly what you were doing when you heard. ... Not everyone is mourning, however. ... ... Germaine Greer pulled on her redundant fright mask and charged into print to bitchslap and rake at...

ON the afternoon before his final adventure, Steve Irwin sat on the aft deck of Deepstar, an aluminium catamaran moored at Batt Reef off Port Douglas, and looked wide-eyed at his host Pete West's newest purchase. It was a modern-day suit of armour. A head-to-toe stainless steel mesh outfit, complete with full-face helmet. The creation of a San Diego-based company specialising in marine equipment, it had been custom-made to protect its wearer from all but the most determined sea creatures. Even tiger sharks - known to devour stingrays, serrated barb and all - would have found the sections of steel...

STEVE Irwin's film crew secretly returned to the Queensland reef where he was killed to complete his final documentary, Ocean's Deadliest. Irwin's longtime manager and friend John Stainton revealed on US TV today that he had asked the crew on the morning after Irwin's death if they would like to complete the documentary. “To a man, they all said yes,” Stainton told CNN talkshow host, Larry King. Stainton said they secretly slipped out to Batt Reef on the Great Barrier Reef, where Irwin was killed by a stingray on Monday, to shoot the final scenes of the documentary.

THIS is the muzzle The Daily Telegraph has sent to batty loudmouth Germaine Greer on behalf of all Australians furious over her comments about Steve Irwin. Today The Daily Telegraph calls on all Crocodile Hunter fans to tell the controversial academic exactly how they feel - and ... this afternoon we can also publish a new address to contact her. Greer raised the ire of a nation this week when she made the bizarre claims that the animal world had taken "revenge" on Steve Irwin when he died tragically from a sting ray attack in northern Queensland. A furious Queensland...

CROCODILE Hunter Steve Irwin's widow has revealed her fears about raising their two young children alone and how their toddler son pines for his father. Terri Irwin's mother Julie Raines said today Steve Irwin's shock death had been "very hard" on his family. Mrs Raines said her two-year-old grandson Robert kept asking his mother "where's Daddy?" But Mrs Raines said eight-year-old granddaughter Bindi, who has made regular TV appearances with her father, had been "a rock" for Terri. Mr Irwin, 44, died on Monday after he was pierced in the heart by the barb of a stingray while filming a...

Germaine Greer, a dingo and a few jackasses said Steve Irwin was a publicity hog, but he was a huge star and a happy Australian. Professional harpy Germaine Greer was one of the first to publicly cackle over the death of Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin. "The animal world has finally taken its revenge on Irwin," the feminista gloated in an article published in Left-wing newspapers such as The Age and The Guardian. And if she meant by "animal world" the slavering pack that has paraded its resentment of Irwin since he was killed she'd be right. On Jon Faine's ABC...

NOW YOU know why Aussie crocodile aficionado Steve Irwin called the new TV show he was working on "The Ocean's Deadliest." After years of poking his boyish face and trademark safari shirt, khaki shorts and hiking boots in front of dangerous animals, Irwin likely would have found some small satisfaction in a deadly animal -- a stingray with a fatal barb -- living up to his PR. Crikey. With Irwin gone, the world will see a little less swagger. Irwin's enthusiasm was infectious and his love for animals was apparent. You have to admire a man who, trained as a...

STEVE Irwin will be buried in private after his family declined offers of a state funeral, with his father Bob yesterday saying the international celebrity should be remembered as an ordinary bloke. The laconic, slightly built retired reptile farmer was obviously grief-stricken but he faced the public because it was what his "mate" Steve would have wanted. Similarly, he declined offers by Prime Minister John Howard and Queensland Premier Peter Beattie for a state funeral. "He's just an ordinary bloke and he wanted to be remembered as an ordinary bloke," said the 66-year-old Mr Irwin, whose two-year-old grandson Bob was...

There are no plans to air video capturing the shocking death of famed "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, but media experts predicted yesterday it will soon be circulating on the Internet.... "It shows that Steve came over the top of the ray and the tail came up, and spiked him here," said Stainton, pointing to his chest. "[Irwin] pulled it out, and the next minute he's gone." The tape shows "no evidence Mr. Irwin was threatening or intimidating the stingray," Queensland State police Superintendent Michael Keating said. While Stainton said every effort will be made to keep the video away from...

IT was the best Father's Day present Steve Irwin could have asked for – a moving tribute from his eight-year-old daughter telling the world how she loved him "very, very much." In Irwin's last magazine interview, Bindi told the September edition of marie claire in it's Father's Day special just how much her dad meant to her: "I love that he's funny, he's entertaining and he's always there when I need him most. "I'm proud to have a dad like that, who takes on conservation issues around the world. "I love him very, very much." For Irwin, the rare father-daughter...

STEVE Irwin's dad Robert has indicated the family may refuse an offer for a state funeral for his son because he was "just an ordinary bloke". "He is just an ordinary bloke - he wants to be remembered as an ordinary bloke," he said at Australia Zoo in Queensland today.

R.I.P: Steve Irwin's body isn't yet cold and already the Pecksniffs are out, tut-tutting the late crocodile hunter's risky encounters with wild beasts. They miss the point: Irwin's life was about enriching humans. Irwin, who died over the weekend after a freak attack by a stingray, did not live a riskless life. In fact, for those who've watched his Animal Planet shows, some wonder why a fatal encounter hadn't happened earlier. But it's indisputable that he mastered nature with a rare talent — a talent that took him to the edge of possibility. For the sake of the rest of...