Croc hunter saved dad's life

2008-04-07 16:34

Sydney - Australia's Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin once stopped his father from committing suicide, the older man said on Monday during an interview in which he spoke of his decision to quit the zoo his son had turned into a multi-million dollar business.

Bob Irwin made the revelation during a national television interview in which he said he was no longer listened to at Australia Zoo, the Queensland wildlife park he founded 36 years ago that is now run by his son's widow.

Irwin also said the death of his son, who died from a stingray barb to the heart while filming on the Great Barrier Reef in September 2006, was an unfair blow because it reversed the natural order.

Speaking publicly for the first time since last month leaving the zoo, the institution he founded as a humble reptile park and which his television star son put under the international spotlight, Bob Irwin said he wanted to kill himself following the death of his first wife in a car accident in 2000.

He said he was only saved by the fact that he had taken his cellphone with him when he drove off into the bush, to a place he used to visit with his wife and son, and that Steve had called.

Rift between him and Terri Irwin

"He said, 'I know what you're going to do.' And I didn't really have an answer for that. And then he said, 'Well, wait there, I'll come with you because we both might as well go,'" Irwin told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"And I said, 'You can't do that' because he had (daughter) Bindi at that stage and he said, 'Well, if you're going to do it, then I'm coming.'"

"I just felt at the time I just couldn't let him do it and he knew that.

"We were so close that we both knew what the other person was thinking a lot of the time and I just couldn't let him do it."

His interview comes amid wide media speculation of a rift between him and his daughter-in-law, Terri Irwin, over her plans to expand the park and concerns about Bindi, now 9, who has a children's television show and a fashion line.

Bob Irwin said he did not agree with some of the ways the Australia Zoo was being managed and that he was leaving because he had become a "disrupting influence".

Denied rumours

"It's a strange feeling to spend half your lifetime building something up and walking away from it," he said.

"I just felt that it was better for everybody concerned if I left Australia Zoo, and Judy and I and all our friends were able to continue Steve's work the way I believe it should be done," he added.

Bob Irwin did not elaborate on his relationship with Terri Irwin.

"I don't see why my family life and my personal issues should be aired publicly and... um, there would be no way that I will discuss those with the media," he said.

Terri Irwin, who plans to transform the park into a Disneyland-style tourist attraction, complete with a 350-room hotel and an African safari park, has repeatedly denied rumours of a rift with her father-in-law.

- AFP