Crocodile hunter's daughter launches new TV show

Australian Bindi Irwin said today she wants her television show to continue the educational and conservation work of her father, the late Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin.

“I’m proud to be showing kids that conservation and helping wildlife is a stack of fun,” the eight-year-old said at the Australian launch of the show, Bindi: The Jungle Girl, in Beerwah. “It’s just the most amazing thing that we could ever do.”

Producers say the show will feature Steve Irwin in scenes shot before he was killed last September when a stingray’s poisonous barb pierced his chest while he was diving on the Great Barrier Reef.

Irwin’s widow Terri said the TV star would have been very proud of his daughter’s debut.

The series will screen on the Discovery Channel in the United States and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“I think he would have said ’Crikey mate, I couldn’t wait for Bindi to take over’,” Terri Irwin said.

Irwin’s daughter was being groomed as his successor in his multimillion-dollar television and conservation business, which includes a family-run animal park at Beerwah in Queensland state.

“Bindi’s been filming with us since she first hatched,” Terri Irwin said. “It was a natural progression to be doing her own shows, and Steve was involved with the first seven episodes.

“He really enjoyed watching Bindi doing and showcasing the wildlife that he worked with for so many years,” she said. “It gave him great pleasure.”