Steve Irwin’s cameraman, Justin Lyons, has recalled the Crocodile Hunter’s tragic final moments 20 years on from his death.
The Australian conservationist died from a stingray attack during a routine documentary shoot on September 4 2006.
Details of Steve’s final moments were revealed in a new documentary honouring his life called Steve Irwin: A Wild Life.
“Waking up, nobody had any idea what was in store for us that day,” Lyons said as he recounted the day of Irwin’s death.
The morning began like any other for the crew at Batt Reef in Far North Queensland. They originally set out to film tiger sharks aboard Steve’s boat, Croc One, but decided to look for other marine life while waiting for the sharks to arrive.
After spotting a bull ray, Irwin and Lyons entered the water with a single underwater camera.
Having filmed with stingrays plenty of times before, Lyons recalled filming Steve swimming alongside the ray before moving to capture a final shot of Irwin swimming up from behind the ray.
“He swims up, swims over the top of it. It doesn’t move, but as he’s directly over the top of it, of course, it thought he was a tiger shark, and started stabbing madly towards him with its tail,” Lyons recalled.
“The water just boiled. I couldn’t see anything that was going on. Bubbles and thrashing, and then all of a sudden it stopped.”
Lyons said the water eventually calmed so he continued to pan the shot of the stingray before panning back to Steve and that’s when they realised something was wrong.
The cameraman recalled Steve jumping out of the water, which was full of blood and screaming out “It’s punctured me lung!”
He dragged Steve back into the back, his khaki shirt was open and blood poured out of a gash in his chest.
“He’s conscious, and he says to me, looks me right in the eye, and he says, ‘I’m dying’,” Lyons tearfully recalled.
The crew performed CPR for 45 minutes while they sped towards Low Island.
A helicopter and paramedics were at the beach when they arrived, with Lyon describing how he felt an “absolute sense of relief” believing they would be able to save Irwin.
However, 10 seconds later they declared Steve dead.
“It was like absolute despair,” Lyons recalled.
“I remembered thinking my whole world’s just changed, just like that and it was never the same.”
The new documentary Steve Irwin: A Wild Life features never-before-seen footage and exclusive interviews with Irwin’s inner circle including his right-hand man Brian Coulter and his long-time manager John Stainton.
Image: Nine
