Steve named her after one of his favourite crocodiles. In 1998 Steve and Terri were blessed with their first child. Steve’s parents retired, and Steve and Terri changed the name of their now growing wildlife park to ‘Australia Zoo’. These programs have been enjoyed by over 500 million viewers world-wide. Steve and Terri would go on to film over 300 episodes of The Crocodile Hunter, Croc Diaries, Croc Files, New Breed Vets, Ghosts of War and Bindi: The Jungle Girl. This became the first episode of The Crocodile Hunter documentary series. Instead of a honeymoon, the couple took the chance to embark on a crocodile rescue mission, filming this experience. Her life changed dramatically when, on June 4, 1992, she married Steve and began a life of adventure. Terri developed her animal care skills further by starting work in 1989 as a veterinary technician at an emergency veterinary hospital. This work was influenced by Terri’s dad, Clarence, who would bring home wildlife he found injured on Oregon’s highways. In 1986, Terri started a wildlife rehabilitation facility called ‘Cougar Country’, specialising in predatory mammals. Terri worked in the family construction business from 1979 until she took over the running of the company in 1984. In 1991, Steve took over the management of the small wildlife park and, soon after, he met Terri Raines, from Eugene, Oregon, when she visited the park. At this stage, Steve was enlisted by the Queensland Government to help with crocodiles, by volunteering for the East-Coast Crocodile Management Program and he captured well over 100 crocodiles, which were either relocated or housed within the family’s park. He would go on field trips with his family right through the seventies, helping to relocate problem crocodiles, studying snakes in Queensland’s deserts and assisted the university with bird surveys.īy the 1980s, the wildlife park had expanded to four acres, had two full-time staff and was re-branded as the ‘Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park’. Steve demonstrated an uncanny gift with wildlife from a very young age.

She was an extraordinary wildlife rehabilitator and was quite skilled in nursing injured and orphaned animals and sending them back to the wild. Many of the kangaroos were cared for in homemade pouches by Steve’s mum, Lyn.

Established in 1970, this two-acre wildlife park was home to native wildlife such as lace monitors, tiger snakes, freshwater crocodiles, magpie geese and kangaroos. Steve was born into wildlife, growing up on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, helping his parents at the ‘Beerwah Reptile Park’.

Lyn irwin biography