Irwin's dad: 'I lost my best mate'
POSTED: 9:39 a.m. EDT, September 6, 2006
BRISBANE, Australia (CNN) -- "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin's father said the family would refuse the offer of a state funeral for the popular TV naturalist, because his son was an "ordinary bloke."
Irwin died Monday when he was struck by a stingray on Batt Reef in the Great Barrier Reef off Port Douglas. He was 44.
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has said a state funeral would be held if the family desired one.
"The state funeral would be refused ... because he's an ordinary guy, he's just an ordinary bloke," Bob Irwin said at a news conference Wednesday outside the Australia Zoo in Beerwah, Queensland, where his son was the director. "He wants to be remembered as an ordinary bloke."
Bob Irwin told reporters his son and he were extremely close.
"Steve and I weren't like father and son, we never were," Irwin said.
"We were good mates. I'll remember Steve as my best mate ever," he said.
Meanwhile, colleagues of Irwin said they wanted video footage destroyed of the star showing him pulling a deadly stingray barb from his chest just before he died on Monday.
The host of Animal Planet's "Crocodile Hunter" was filming scenes for a show intended for children when he was attacked.
Irwin's manager and close friend John Stainton told CNN's Larry King he would not want the tape released. "It should be destroyed," he said Tuesday.
The tape is in police custody, according to Stainton.
Stainton told CNN he believed Irwin was dead by the time he was brought from the water, despite efforts by those on his boat to keep him alive while racing to an island to meet a medical helicopter.
"In my heart, I figure -- I think he was dead when he was in the rubber ducky," Stainton told King. "I don't think he was alive." (Watch excerpts from the show -- 4:46)
A rubber ducky is a small inflatable boat, which was used to transport Irwin back to his research vessel, CrocOne. Efforts to resuscitate Irwin proved futile.
Stingray discussions
Irwin, the Australian naturalist and wildlife crusader who won fame for his TV show "The Crocodile Hunter," had been working on a documentary -- ironically, on the ocean's deadliest animals when the accident occurred.
Bad weather had made it impossible to proceed with a planned taping for the Animal Planet channel, so Irwin chose Monday to shoot "a couple of soft stories for a new TV show we're doing," Stainton told CNN when the news broke.
"He and the underwater cameraman went out to do some pieces on the reef and coral and stuff good for the kids' show and, unfortunately, he came out over the top of a stingray that was buried in the sand and the barb went up and hit him in the chest," Stainton said Monday.
"He was as good on the water as he was on land," Stainton recalled Tuesday. "He was comfortable anywhere there was wildlife. He'd been diving 10, 15 years ... I never thought he'd take a hit from a stingray. He was very used to them."
Only the day before, he, Irwin and a doctor on board had discussed stingrays and the effects of their barbs, Stainton said. Stingrays, however, were not to be included in the "dangerous animals" documentary. (Watch how a stingray strikes -- 2:35 )
Stainton said he had to watch the tape in order to verify what was on it. "It was a hard experience," he said.
Irwin's body was brought from Cairns to his hometown of Beerwah in southeast Queensland on Tuesday. Stainton said he accompanied it on the six-hour flight. A date has not been set for the funeral, he said.
Irwin, who was director of the family's Australia Zoo in Queensland, is survived by his American-born wife, Terri, and their two children, Bindi Sue, 8, and Robert, 3. Asked how Terri Irwin was doing, Stainton said, "A lot worse than me."
When family members saw Irwin's casket, he said, "It was like a full stop ... you think it's a dream and it's not happening, but it is, and it has and it's done."
Out of respect for Irwin's family, Australia's quarantine service is withdrawing all TV advertising that features Irwin promoting the importance of Australian quarantine measures.
AI
