On February 22nd 1962 Stephen Robert Irwin was born in Essendon Victoria to mother Lyn and father Bob both animal naturalists, in 1970 Bob, Lyn and Steve moved to the Sunshine Coast, Queensland where they opened the Queensland reptile and fauna park and Steve found his love for reptiles and animals. By doing his daily chores Steve soon learnt how to look after a lot of different type of animals and reptiles. On the 22nd of February 1968 Steve received a 3.6m long scrub python as his sixth birthday present, his very first snake.

Things moved pretty quickly from then on, the Queensland government was amazed at the amount of crocodiles Steve had caught bare-handed with the crocodile relocation program. By 1991 bob and Lyn retired leaving the management of Australia zoo to Steve, at this time the zoo had around 100 animals and reptiles either caught or bred at the zoo. In early 1992 Steve met a beautiful women from Oregon U.S.A named Terri Raines who was a visitor at his zoo while on holiday in Australia, they started dating and then married in June 1992. Later that year Steve relesed a one-off documentary called the crocodile hunter which contained footage from their ‘hunting honeymoon’.

Everyone looks at Steve to be brave, not scared of anything but everyone has a fear. Believe it or not Steve is scared to death of parrots, the Sulfar crested cockatoo in particular because when he was a kid his father’s pet Sulfar Crest tried to bite off his nose. As Steve became more famous he would have people running up to meet him but all that stopped when a young girl was seriously injured from being knocked over by a fan rushing to meet him. Despite all of the dangerous situations Steve has been in he’s only ever needed surgery on a muscle in his knee which is amazing.

On the 24th of July 1998 at 9:46pm Bindi Sue Irwin was born weighing just 2.8 kilos, Bindi Sue, Steve and Terri’s first child, was named after Steve’s favorite crocodile Bindi and his Staffordshire bullterrier cross ‘sui’ who has appeared on many of the Irwin’s TV series The Crocodile Hunter.On January 20th 1999 Steve featured in the U.S cartoon South Park where he was hired by the government to hunt a prehistoric ice man. Then on the 29th of June 2001 Steve was featured in a Hollywood film alongside Eddie Murphy called Dr Dolittle 2.by July 12th 2002 Steve decided to make a second documentary called The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course. Amazingly enough Prime Minister John Howard visited Steve at the zoo, Steve said to Mr. Howard that he is the greatest Prime Minister Australia has ever had and that he’s the greatest leader in the world,  critics say that Steve was put on the spot and that many people in his position would have said the same.

Then the Irwin’s received another gift Robert (Bob) Clarence Irwin on the 1st of December at 8am weighing 2.8 kilos, Robert was named after Steve’s father Bob and Terri’s father Clarence. Unfortunately as Steves popularity rose so did his confidence, then on January 2nd 2004 Steve held one month old Robert in one arm while feeding a 4m long crocodile with the other but Steve's wife Terri said ‘their son was in no danger, no chargers were laid. And then in June 2004 Steve was accused of being too close to whales and seals while filming in Antarctica but as the investigation went on it was proven that Steve was not holding on to a whale but an iceberg and the whales were in no danger, no charges were laid.

In January 2006 Steve Irwin became the face of an Australian tourism campaign in America. As the years passed Steve became more famous with over 500 million fans from all around the world, he appeared on TV shows such as Rove Live and Better Homes and Gardens and many more. Sadly in August 2006 Terri, Bindi and Bob took a trip to Tasmania to have a break, while Steve stayed in Port Douglas to shoot footage for daughter Bind's TV series coming out in January 2007 on Animal Planet. But bad weather kept him from doing what he loved, so after a few days on the 4th of September 2006 he decided to take a risk and go for some snorkeling, manager and good friend john Stainton agreed because Steve needed to keep his adrenalin pumping so Steve, Peter West (camera man) and a few crew members set of in a small boat called ‘croc one’. After finally arriving at the spot Steve discovered the wet suit didn’t fit so he couldn’t wear one. Peter was filming Steve when a 2.5 m long sting-ray appeared swimming under Steve then turned around and unexpectedly stuck its poisons barb straight through Steves chest into his heart, he automatically pulled it out and as soon as Peter saw blood he and another crew member pulled him from the water into the boat were he lay barely conscious, the crew immediately headed strait to land but being 40 nautical miles off shore it was too late the crew tried to revive him but they were unsuccessful .

Stephen (Steve) Robert Irwin was pronounced dead by ambulance officers at around 11am on Monday the 4th of September 2006, the day after Father’s Day. The news of Steve's death soon spread across the nation leaving Australia in shock, by the end of the day countries around the world learnt of his death and were devastated but the worst part is no one could contact Terri and the kids until about 3pm. For days after Steve's tragic death people came from all over the country taking cards, poems, candles, signed t-shirts, soft toys and their tears  to Australia zoo and lined the front entrance with them. Prime Minster John Howard made a statement saying ‘ I am quite shocked and distressed at Steve Irwin’s sudden untimely and freakish death, it’s a huge loss to Australia’ followed by statements from Peter Beatie, Kim Beasly and even George .W. Bush. I think that we have lost an Australian hero that will never be able to be replaced. The day after Steve's death the media put pressure on the Irwin family to choose between a state or private funeral, three days later Steve's father Bob Irwin made an emotional statement saying ‘I don’t know if I'll ever get through this because Steve and I never really had a father and son relationship we were more like mates, Steve would not want a state funeral because he considered himself to be an ordinary bloke and just wanted to be treated like one’’ we are having a private funeral with close friends and family only (within 10 days)’ ‘I'd  like to thank everyone for their support but the family would now like some privacy to mourn’.

Steve Irwin’s death is being compared to princess Diana’s because of the response and media coverage, but not all coverage is good. The last moments of Steve's life were caught on tape which has been handed to Queensland police followed by a statement saying ‘ there were no suspicious circumstance surrounding Steve Irwin’s death’ ‘ the tape showed that Steve did not stir or disturb the sting-ray in anyway and that it may have been set off by another creature’. Then just two days after Steve's devastating death a women  went on WIN news saying ‘ Steve was nothing but an idiot and no one really liked him, followed by Kim Beasly telling her to ‘put a sock in it’. I think that the people who didn’t like Steve Irwin had 44 years to bag him out and they should stop now and leave his millions of fans to grieve the death of their idol.

Steve bought the total of deaths from a sting-ray to 3 in the world ever recorded, we all thought  Steve would be killed by a crocodile or snake but not a sting-ray. I don’t think anyone could be more devastated then his geogous daughter Bindi who said on TV just months ago ‘I'm gonna be just like my daddy’, and the amount of photos of the two together shows it. We all know Bindi is going to follow in her father’s footsteps and one day run Australia zoo with her baby brother Bob. Steve kept Australia from turning into America, he taught us how to be ‘true blue aussies’ as he would say, he taught us about different types of animals, reptile and mammals. We’ll remember Steve as the greatest crocodile hunter ever in the world and I'm sure that the simple word ‘crikey’ will remind us of Steve too. We're all going to miss you sooooo much Steve!