Steve Irwin

Discovery announces Irwin 'Crikey' fund tribute. :

"'DCI is looking at the creation of the Steve Irwin Crocodile Hunter Fund, which we'll affectionately call 'The Crikey Fund' to honour Steve's passion and exuberance for conservation and the animal kingdom,' he said."

That is an incredibly lovely thing to do. To us he is Steve Irwin. We often forget he is world famous because he was just Steve Irwin. For many children he is that uncle who went on great adventures and regaled them with tales of the weird and the mysterious. To children he was that person who knew no fear and who could light their eyes with the joys and wonders of their world. To adults he was that brother or brother in law who was always off on causes and doing daredeveil things with animals. Much of his conservation work was clouded by the larger than life media image. Much of his life was dedicated to saving and treasuring our environment. That do-gooder side he performed methodically and with thought but we saw the man who worked with snakes and crocodiles and who would work with the animals in such a gungho but knowledgeable way. He could seem bold and brash at times but you always knew he was trying to make you fearless as well. He was using his Australian approach to keep the things he loved alive. He wanted to people to understand animals and to respect them but not fear them. So much of him was dedicated to teaching young ones to see our animals might be scary but they were all right. Fear creates panic and panic means we will kill what we do not understand. Why now? We are all asking why. He has shown us the way. He rocket launched himself into our lives so that we do not forget him. He has set up the mechanisms for us to work with our wild life and to sustain our bush. Now is the test. Do we care that much about our animals? Do we care that much about conservation? Are we all talk? Can we actually look after our wild life and wild life areas ourselves? We can't keep having beacons and this is a testing time because money and property are everything. How much do we really care? In certain respects the offer of a state funeral is incredibly kind but I don't think it's for Steve. He was one of us. He was a part of our land and what we think we stand for. He could live our thoughts. That uncle, that brother, that brother in law who can keep our hearts in the right place by giving us an awesome sense of adventure and a way of making our thoughts reality. We all say we care about Australiana. So ,for me, it is very much the family thing. He is very missed. We dare not hardly talk about it for fear of upsetting his family or saying something out of line. You always respect the well loved rellies and you always tread carefully . We haven't lost a stateman. We have lost an uncle. A brother. One of our own. We haven't got it yet. We shall and then our hearts really will break because at the moment they are dissolving silently so that we don't disturb the universe.