Bob Irwin named grandad of the year
August 28, 2007 01:04pm
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ALMOST a year after his celebrity son's death, Bob Irwin has been named Queensland's grandfather of the year.

The 67-year-old father of Steve Irwin and grandfather of Bindi, 9, and Bob, 3, was today honoured by the Queensland Father's Day Council.

He has two other children, Joy and Mandy, and four other grandchildren.

Mr Irwin was not present for the award ceremony in Brisbane, due to commitments with a major wildlife project on his family's conservation reserve on Cape York, in far north Queensland.

His award was instead accepted by son-in-law Frank Muscillo and grandson James.

In 1970, Melbourne-born Bob Irwin and wife Lyn - who died in 2000 - set up the Beerwah Reptile Park on the Sunshine Coast.

In the mid-1980s, son Steve left the park and disappeared into the wilds of north Queensland to catch and relocate saltwater crocodiles that threatened remote communities.

When Steve's parents left the park in the early 1990s, he and new American wife Terri took over.
They eventually teamed up with producer John Stainton to make a series of documentaries, turning Steve into an internationally famous celebrity known as the Crocodile Hunter.

Steve died last September when a stingray stabbed him in the chest while he was filming a documentary on Batt Reef, off the north Queensland coast.

Queensland Father's Day Council chairman the Reverend Allan Male said Bob Irwin had passed on his love for conservation to his family.

"Mr Irwin has imbued his family with a constructive passion for wildlife that has had extraordinarily wide impact throughout the world, particularly through the high profile of his son Steve and now the enthusiasm of his granddaughter Bindi, guided caringly by her mother Terri," Mr Male said.