One of the last photo's of Steve, and the video - Big Big Forums

Kyla Kym · 09-04-2006, 09:33 PM

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Steve Irwin waves from Croc One while leaving Port Douglas on his last expedition on Friday.
Photo: Paul Hanley

Film of Steve's body being taking to the hospital.

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Robert Wainwright and Jordan Baker
September 5, 2006

IN THE end Steve Irwin got too close. The wildlife champion and television personality, known around the world as the Crocodile Hunter, died just after 11am yesterday in front of the cameras when a stingray's barb pierced his heart as he swam over Batt Reef, off the coast of Port Douglas in far north Queensland.

Of his millions of fans, most would have imagined his death by crocodile jaws or poisonous snake, not swimming in a Barrier Reef lagoon, or away from his family - his wife, Terri, and young children, Bindi and Bob - who were flying by private plane to Maroochydore last night from the Tasmanian wilderness, where they had been on a trekking holiday.

Irwin's fellow documentary maker Ben Cropp revealed that footage shows Irwin swimming alongside a large smooth stingray, also known as a bull ray, in less than two metres of water, while a cameraman from his production company swims in front to film him for a new TV wildlife series.

Without warning, the ray, usually regarded as a placid creature towards humans, stops, turns and lashes out, spearing Irwin in the chest with one of the knife-like barbs at the end of its tail - an action like a paring knife creating "a terrific tearing of flesh", said Bryan Fry, of the University of Melbourne's Australian venom research unit.

It was not known last night whether Irwin, 44, died of a heart attack, blood loss from the wound, venom from the ray or a combination of all three. It was only the third known death by stingray in Australia.

The news sparked a frenzy of tributes from around the world for a man considered an Australian folk hero. Early this morning, the Herald's website had logged close to 2000 tributes from readers.

Cropp has not seen the footage but spoke to a friend on Irwin's research vessel, Croc One, which he had been using in the area for several days.

"I wanted to know the truth before the bull**** got out," Cropp said. "I can picture it happening; the ray must have felt threatened. Mostly they get spooked and swim off but in this case it stops, swings and jabs upward with its tail. It can lash a metre or more. Steve must have been in a vulnerable position. He probably got too close. "Do I think he was irresponsible? No, he was unlucky. I know because I've done it myself, but in my case the ray missed me."

Pete West, a professional diver, was on a1 nearby boat at the time of the tragedy and confirmed Cropp's version of events.

"We were the closest boat to the area and they stopped by to tell us," Mr West told Channel Seven. "We raised the alarm while they took him back to his own boat."

Asked if Irwin was alive when they got him on his own boat, Mr West said: "I believe so."

Irwin's friend and producer, John Stainton, said it was unlikely he had felt any pain. He had been taken back to Croc One but had not regained consciousness despite attempts by crew to revive him.

"We got him back within a couple of minutes to Croc One," Mr Stainton said tearfully. "We tried to quickly trip back to Low Isles, where we were going to meet the emergency rescue people to do immediate and constant CPR, try and resuscitate him back into life. When we got there it was probably 10 to 12, and by 12 o'clock, when the emergency crew arrived, they pronounced him dead."

Mr Stainton said the crew from the Brisbane-based best Picture Show Company had been filming in the Cairns and Port Douglas area for a documentary called Ocean's Deadliest. "It was basically looking at things that can kill you in the sea," Mr Stainton said.

"This morning Steve decided to shoot a couple of segments for a new TV show he's doing with his daughter, Bindi, and with the cameramen went out onto the reef … to film a segment on stingrays."

The crew was travelling on Irwin's 22-metre, double-decked research boat, which he designed and engineered. It has two floating crocodile traps, an inflatable dinghy for diving, two shark dive cages and two cranes for lifting heavy creatures from the water. It was also built for a helicopter.

The distress call was sent out at 11.21am. Emergency Management Queensland told the crew to meet a helicopter at Low Isles, a favourite destination for day trips to the Barrier Reef and 30 minutes from Batt Reef.

Irwin was being given CPR when the helicopter arrived on the beach soon after midday. Ed O'Loughlin, a doctor on the helicopter, said nothing could be done to save him. "It became clear fairly soon that he had non-survivable injuries. He had a penetrating injury to the left front of his chest. He had lost his pulse and wasn't breathing."

Terri Irwin was at the other end of the Australian wilderness, at Cradle Mountain in Tasmania. She knew what had happened before police arrived to tell her, despite initial reports that she was unaware of the tragedy as the news went around the world.

Mrs Irwin drove her children and family members to Devonport, where they boarded a private plane just after 5pm. Eight-year-old Bindi Irwin was clutching an armful of blankets as she boarded the plane. Two-year-old Bob - the centre of controversy when his father included him in a crocodile demonstration as a baby at the family's Australia Zoo near Maroochydore - was clutching a pink pig.

Seems like there is more being told and shown on the Australian news sites.

tarasdream · 09-05-2006, 07:47 AM

Crocodile Hunter's death caught on video By BRIAN CASSEY, Associated Press Writer

CAIRNS, Australia - Steve Irwin was videotaped pulling a poisonous stingray barb from his chest in his last moments of life, officials said Tuesday, as tributes poured in for TV's "Crocodile Hunter."

Police said there was nothing suspicious about Irwin's death and no evidence he provoked the animal. Irwin, 44, was stabbed through the heart on Monday while snorkeling with a stingray during filming of a new TV program on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

John Stainton, Irwin's manager who was among the crew on the reef, said the fatal blow was caught on videotape, and described viewing the footage as having the "terrible" experience of watching a friend die.

"It shows that Steve came over the top of the ray and the tail came up, and spiked him here (in the chest), and he pulled it out and the next minute he's gone," Stainton told reporters in Cairns, where Irwin's body was taken for an autopsy.

Queensland state police were holding the tape as evidence for a coroner's inquiry — a standard procedure in high-profile deaths or those caused by other than natural causes.

Experts have said the stingray may have felt trapped between the cameraman and the TV star. Irwin, the popular host of "Crocodile Hunter," rose to fame by getting dangerously close to crocodiles, snakes and other beasts.

But Queensland Police Superintendent Michael Keating said there was no evidence Irwin threatened or intimidated the stingray, a normally placid species that only deploys its poisonous tail spines as a defense.

Stainton said Irwin was in his element in the Outback, but that he and Irwin had talked about the sea posing threats the star wasn't used to.

"If ever he was going to go, we always said it was going to be the ocean," Stainton said. "On land he was agile, quick-thinking, quick-moving and the ocean puts another element there that you have no control over."

Parliament took a break from the business of running the country to pay tribute to Irwin, whose body was being flown home Tuesday from Cairns. No funeral plans were announced but state Premier Peter Beattie said Irwin would be afforded a state funeral if his family agreed.

Irwin's American wife Terri, Bindi and their son Bob, almost 3, returned late Monday from a trekking vacation in Tasmania to Australia Zoo, the wildlife park where the family lived at Beerwah in Queensland's southeast.

At the park, hundreds of people filed past the entrance laying floral bouquets and handwritten condolence messages. Khaki shirts — a trademark of Irwin — were laid out for people to sign.

"Mate, you made the world a better place," read one poster left at the gate. "Steve, our hero, our legend, our wildlife warrior," read another. "I thought you were immortal. How I wish that was true," said a third.

The park opened Tuesday because it was what Irwin would have wanted, said Gail Gipp, an animal health employee.

Irwin was propelled to global fame after his TV shows, in which he regularly wrestled with crocodiles and went face-to-face with poisonous snakes and other wild animals, were shown around world on the Discovery Channel.

The network announced plans for a marathon screening of Irwin's work and a wildlife fund in his name.

"Rarely has the world embraced an animal enthusiast and conservationist as they did Steve Irwin," Discovery Networks International President Dawn McCall said in a statement.

Experts differed on the number of human deaths caused by stingrays — anywhere from 3 to 17 — though they agreed that they were extremely rare.