{"id":878048,"date":"2026-09-03T01:18:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T01:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/878048\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T01:18:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T01:18:29","slug":"steve-irwin-a-wild-life-steve-irwins-cameraman-reveals-crocodile-hunters-tragic-final-words-20-years-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/878048\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Irwin: A Wild Life: Steve Irwin\u2019s cameraman reveals Crocodile Hunter\u2019s tragic final words, 20 years on"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justin Lyons, the last man who spoke to Steve Irwin before his death<\/a>, has recalled the beloved Aussie conservationist<\/a>\u2019s harrowing final moments.<\/p>\n

The world was stunned when Steve Irwin died from a stingray attack during a routine documentary shoot on September 4, 2006. It\u2019s 20 years on and the world still can\u2019t stop talking about him. <\/p>\n

\"Steve<\/p>\n

Steve Irwin\u2019s cameraman and producer Justin Lyons\u2019 recalled the Crocodile Hunter\u2019s tragic final moments in Steve Irwin: A Wild Life. \u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

Cameraman and producer Lyons was just one of many who appeared in the documentary Steve Irwin: A Wild Life to celebrate the life of the Crocodile Hunter. <\/p>\n

\u201cWaking up, nobody had any idea what was in store for us that day,\u201d Lyons said as he recounted the day of Irwin\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

The tragic morning began off the coast of Far North Queensland<\/a> at Batt Reef. The crew had originally been targeting tiger sharks aboard Irwin\u2019s boat, Croc One, but decided to scout for other marine life while waiting for the sharks to arrive. <\/p>\n

After spotting a bull ray, Irwin and Lyons got in the water with a single underwater camera. <\/p>\n

Having filmed with stingrays if not a hundred times before, Lyons recalled filming Irwin swimming alongside the ray before moving to capture a final piece of footage \u2013 a shot of Irwin swimming up from behind the ray. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe swims up, swims over the top of it. It doesn\u2019t move, but as he\u2019s directly over the top of it, of course, it thought he was a tiger shark, and started stabbing madly towards him with its tail,\u201d Lyons recalled. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe water just boiled. I couldn\u2019t see anything that was going on. Bubbles and thrashing, and then all of a sudden it stopped.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Steve<\/p>\n

It has been 20 years since Irwin passed away on September 4, 2006.\u00a0Instagram<\/p>\n

Lyons said the water had calmed so he continued to pan the shot of the stingray before panning back to Steve. That\u2019s when he jumped out of the water, which was full of blood, screaming out \u201cIt\u2019s punctured me lung!\u201d <\/p>\n

The cameraman dragged Steve into the boat, his khaki shirt was open and blood poured out of a gash in his chest. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s conscious, and he says to me, looks me right in the eye, and he says, \u2018I\u2019m dying\u2019,\u201d Lyons tearfully recalled. <\/p>\n

For 45 minutes, the crew aboard Croc One desperately performed CPR while speeding towards Low Island. <\/p>\n

\"Steve<\/p>\n

Despite chasing crocs his whole life it was a stingray that ended Irwin\u2019s life.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

By the time they returned to the beach, Lyons saw the helicopter and paramedics land and felt an \u201cabsolute sense of relief\u201d believing they would be able to save Irwin. <\/p>\n

But within 10 seconds of the paramedics arriving they declared Irwin dead. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like absolute despair,\u201d Lyons said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI remembered thinking my whole world\u2019s just changed, just like that and it was never the same.\u201d <\/p>\n

Steve Irwin: A Wild Life<\/a> featured never-before-seen footage and exclusive interviews with Irwin\u2019s inner circle including Lyons, Irwin\u2019s right-hand man Brian Coulter and his long-time manager John Stainton. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Lyons, the last man who spoke to Steve Irwin before his death, has recalled the beloved Aussie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-878048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}