Ozgirl

You have expressed what I have been thinking. I too hope that Terry will stay here with her family. I feel that Terry is more a part of us than the US. I hope she knows that.

I put forward the idea of a statue in another article discussion and still think he would be more deserving of it than the Political figures routinely cast in stone.

But I also stated in another thread that I thought a State Funeral a little over the top for a guy like Steve Irwin. He lived simply and would have wanted to be laid to rest in similar style. Not with an expensive public funeral at tax payers expense. Thats for people like Packer who liked to waste money. I heard his father on the radio this morning saying words to the same effect. Steve was just an ordinary guy he said. I think a lot of people would disagree there. He certainly wanted to be treated like an ordinary guy but the Larrikin was anything but.

Wayne

Steve's father has already vetoed the idea of a state funeral for the very same reasons - that Steve was a down to earth sort of guy and wouldn't want a state funeral.

My respect continues to soar for the Irwins.

I heard Steves dad say on a tv special last night that he would now try to carry on in Steves place until the kids are old enough ,so I think its safe to say (fingers crossed) that his legacy will be in safe hands...
I think Terry will stay here..

My kids suggested we send some flowers,so a little bit of us is at Australia Zoo today..We sent him and his family a foral arrangement of 'Giant Proteas'...perhaps we should have donated that money to the Wildlife Warrior fund? We still can.

I feel sorry for poor little innocent Bindi the most.
http://www.bindiirwin.com

Terri has her children to think about and keep her strong and Bob is too young to really understand what has happened. It's sad that he won't have any fond memories of his crazy Dad when he gets older though. But really it's Bindi who is going to be totally shattered the most. A large chunk of her universe has simply vanished and she's certainly old enough to feel the anguish of losing a parent.

Steve was filming documentary footage for Bindi's first ever television show of her own. Her major step into stardom. Now ofcourse the whole thing is up in the air and Terri will have to decide whether or not to let the series continue.

Now the media will doubtless centre its attention on the surviving members of the Irwin clan and in particular little Bindi. I doubt Terri will sell the Zoo but I imagine it will be hard to keep working there with all its associated memories. Life just isn't fair is it.

This couldn't have happened to a less deserving family. I know that many people half expected Steve would one day get eaten by a Croc but that was never really on the cards. He knew Crocodiles too well. Apparently he wasn't quite as much an expert on Stingrays though. It was a one in a million freak accident for sure but the ocean wasn't Steve's specialty. He was great with all animals but nobody could have known that was going to happen.

On the positive side Steve had a full life if a short one and crikey did he have a lot of adventures. The Irwins certainly won't be alone in their grief either. They have a lot of friends and supporters to help get them though this trying time.

I think that, overall, Steve Irwin contributed greatly towards interesting kids worldwide, about the environment. Because he projected that enthusiastic determined "ordinariness', he had great appeal, especially to Australians, who don't always like the lecturing mode of the BBC and David Attenborough.
It's a pity that someone so talented as Steve Irwin had to disguise his intelligence with a yobbo-iike presentation, in order to win the hearts and minds of Australians and Americans. But apparently, in these countries, it's best to not appear too bright, if you want to be liked.
I thought that Germaine Greer had a real point, in criticising Irwin's macho mode of studying nature, and that hers was not really an attack on the person himself - so much as of his methods of invading the territory of animals, and subjecting them to frightening experiences. Germaine Greer did not deserve the hostile reaction to her quite appropriate criticisms.