Dedicated To Terri Irwin.

Bindi, Terri, and Bob at the public memorial to Steve.

The phenomenon that is the Irwin legend rolls on, as I had already posted twice on Steve’s untimely death I didn’t post again on Terri Irwin’s interview.

This caused another huge ripple in the pond that is the public's perception of this family, the interview was just as emotionally moving as the news of Steve’s death, his memorial, and Bindi’s amazing tribute to her Dad.

As I said I really had no idea of a follow up post until yet another fact about the Irwin family began to emerge, this latest trend is that, following Terri’s candid description of Steve’s love of his family and especially his children, there has been a very noticeable trend for busy Dads to find time to spend with their kids.

The central theme of Terri’s interview was that Steve placed his children before anything else in his busy life, and his schedule would make most others look like a ride in the park.

Rivalling his famous "Crikey" there is another facet of Steve that has surfaced, this was his absolute willingness to stop what he was doing when he detected it was time for a "Bob Moment" nothing was allowed to stand in the way of these times.

Now we have Dads being interviewed on TV and admitting that they had felt to busy with their work commitments to give their job as a parent sufficient attention, and, importantly making some changes to help accommodate that task.

We have all seen the public image that the Irwin family put forward, but to have a grieving widow paint the picture of Steve’s adoration for his family so glowingly seems to have driven the idea home.

Again there has been coverage of the Irwin dream for Australia Zoo, the Animal Refuge and Hospital, the creation of wildlife habitat refuges in land purchased by them for that purpose, so that we know they were very sincere.

It is only now that the media attention has been focused on their enterprises that we are starting to see the enormity of the loss that Australia and the World has suffered.

To hear that an eight year old child will take over her fathers dreams and make them come true would in most cases be quite ludicrous, but given that her parents were Steve and Terri Irwin and learning of the wonderful family life they had, suddenly the idea is no longer ludicrous.

I for one wondered whether Terri might pack her family up and head for the comfort of her family back in the States, but having heard her say, while fighting back tears, that Australia Zoo would not only remain open as a memorial to Steve, but would one day rival Disneyland as a tourist destination, I think it’s a safe bet that she is staying.

The only blemish over the past four weeks has been the unscrupulous activities of a few who have tried to make a profit from Steve’s death by setting up phony charities purporting to be for Wildlife Warriors, and others who registered the internet names of Terri Irwin and Bindi Irwin and have been spreading very undesirable information to the many people who have arrived at their sites innocently.

As I said at the start of this post the phenomenon of Steve Irwin is still gathering pace and strength, who knows just where it will finish, the one thing that has been proven beyond dispute is that the world lost an inspirational man when Steve died and perhaps more surprisingly the world recognized that loss immediately and mourned as one.

The family in much happier times.



Flashback.


On behalf of the heartbroken Irwin family, Mr Irwin, Steve's father, read these details from a written statement at the Australian Zoo.

"Because of the tremendous public sympathy and support, we have decided to hold a full memorial service within the next two weeks at a suitable venue yet to be decided."

Mr Irwin later wandered around the massive "Diana-esque" makeshift shrine at the Zoo's entrance, crying at times as he gazed at the sight overflowing with flowers, condolence cards, balloons and other Aussie tokens such as crocodile toys and flags.

And the only negative comments published here in Australia.

By the "VERY" EXPATRIATE Germaine Greer

Steve Irwin had embarrassed millions of Australians, outspoken expatriate Australian academic Germaine Greer has said.

And those who had mourned him with their tributes at the Irwin family's Australia Zoo in what the British had labelled "a Princess Diana moment" were "idiots", she said.

British-based Ms Greer wrote in The Guardian newspaper on Tuesday, following Mr Irwin's sudden death that the animal world had taken revenge on "self-deluded animal tormentor Steve Irwin".

"I find the whole Steve Irwin phenomenon (embarrassing) — and I'm not the only person who did," Ms Greer said.

But when pushed, she was unable to name anyone who had publicly agreed with her.

And on that unsavoury note I'll finish this post, I confidently expect the Irwin legend to continue and even to grow as time passes.