![]() ![]() On 1 July 2011, Bob Irwin announced he was considering challenging Labor incumbent Kate Jones and Liberal National Party leader Campbell Newman for the seat of Ashgrove in Brisbane. He was protesting the construction of a gas pipeline. On 12 April 2011, Bob Irwin was arrested and charged for contravening police direction as part of his civil disobedience actions against the Queensland Gas Company. He thanked the zoo staff for all their support, with the notable exception of his daughter-in-law, Terri Irwin, with whom, according to zoo staff and volunteers, Irwin had an ongoing feud over treatment of staff, management of Wildlife Warriors and the commercial direction of the world-famous attraction. On 2 March 2008, it was announced that Bob Irwin had resigned from Australia Zoo (the renamed Beerwah Reptile and Fauna Park) in order to "keep his son's dream alive". Irwin and his wife live on a rural property near Kingaroy, from where Irwin continued to campaign for wildlife and environmental conservation through his foundation, Bob Irwin Wildlife & Conservation Foundation Inc. Later, in 2006, Steve Irwin died after being pierced in the chest by a short-tail stingray.īob Irwin has since remarried to Judy, and was Queensland's Grandfather of the Year in 2008. ![]() What a wild menagerie, and an exceptional household to be raised in. It was nothing for us kids to be sharing our house with orphaned joey kangaroos, sugar gliders, ringtail or brushtail possums, koala joeys, baby birds and untold amounts of other injured Australian animals. Our house was a giant maternity ward fair smack-dab in the middle of the Beerwah Reptile Park. What a childhood! My mum was the " Mother Teresa" of wildlife rehabilitation. Steve would enlarge the park to 76 acres (31 ha) and rename the park the Australia Zoo. Steve, the couple's son, would not only come to fulfill the roles of curator and director of the Beerwah Reptile Park, but also produced and starred in his highly popular educational documentary series, The Crocodile Hunter. While Irwin made a living as a plumber, and Lyn as a maternity nurse, the family's consuming passion was rescuing and rehabilitating local wildlife. Together, they had three children, a daughter, Joy, son Steve, and a second daughter, Mandy. Irwin married Lyn Hakainsson, a maternity nurse who was killed in a car accident in 2000. Irwin, later aided by son Steve, personally caught and raised every crocodile in the Reptile Park, ultimately tallying over 100 crocodiles. Irwin would also come to strike bargains with the government, catching problematic or intruding crocodiles in Queensland and in return bringing them to the Reptile Park. Irwin was noted in the conservation sector for utilizing non-violent capture techniques which were then largely unemployed, such as proximity lassoing, hooding, trapping, and netting instead of the more common tranquilizers, chains, or other potentially harmful methods. Irwin's foresight and innovation in captive care, breeding, and handling of native Australian animals set a new benchmark for wildlife welfare in Australia. Irwin's memoir, The Last Crocodile Hunter: A Father and Son Legacy, was released on 25 October 2016. Irwin also resigned from his role as manager of Ironbark Station at Blackbutt where he lived, moving to a new 240-hectare (590-acre) property surrounded by forest and national park between Kingaroy and Murgon where he would continue his son's conservation work. ![]() Irwin would build a shed, and then the Irwin house, which the Irwin family and Bob Irwin lived in until Bob gave the wildlife park to his son Steve. Irwin dedicated so much time to constructing the Reptile Park and the enclosures that, for the first years in their new life of exhibiting native fauna, the Irwins lived in an old RV caravan. As a builder, Irwin personally turned his hand to building and designing the Beerwah Reptile Park. He had decided to turn his love for animals from a hobby into a career and purchased 4 acres (16,000 m 2) of land to construct a wildlife refuge. ![]()
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