{"id":239208,"date":"2026-01-18T05:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T05:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/239208\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T05:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T05:52:10","slug":"wildlife-warriors-hometown-hosts-lookalike-contest-to-celebrate-his-return-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/239208\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildlife warriors hometown hosts lookalike contest to celebrate his return home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Robert Irwin&#8217;s return to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/australia\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Australia\">Australia<\/a> has been celebrated with a lookalike search in his home town.Hundreds turned out as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/sunshine-coast\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Sunshine Coast\">Sunshine Coast<\/a> community hosted a lookalike contest to find the wildlife warrior&#8217;s unofficial doppelganger.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To welcome Robert Irwin home after six months, we had a bit of fun,&#8221; Visit Sunshine Coast chief executive Matt Stoeckel said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/993dfda0-43af-4bf2-acd2-8b632c34c654.jpeg\"   alt=\"Hundreds turned out as the Sunshine Coast community hosted the lookalike contest.\"\/>Hundreds turned out as the Sunshine Coast community hosted the lookalike contest. (9News)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If Bindi Irwin had been here, she would have done a double take.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Thirty contestants battled it out on Kings Beach at Caloundra for the coveted title and bragging rights.<\/p>\n<p>Robert lookalikes of all shapes and sizes strutted their stuff on a beachside catwalk in front of 300 people.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/b05476b8-06dc-4530-a2b5-53f09da2a8e3.jpeg\"   alt=\"Robert lookalikes of all shapes and sizes strutted their stuff on a beachside catwalk in front of 300 people.\"\/>Robert lookalikes strutted their stuff on a beachside catwalk in front of 300 people. (9News)<\/p>\n<p>Lookalike hopefuls tried to win over the judges with a range of props including toy crocodiles, blond wigs and the iconic khakis.<\/p>\n<p>Stoeckel said the stakes were high with strict criteria to claim the crown.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You had to own the crikey with confidence, you had to have that Robert Irwin physique and really be able to entertain the crowd with a bit of dance moves and some croc wrestling,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/475f6a5a-3826-4917-b899-e3a0483d10bf.png\"   alt=\"\"\/>Ben Marshall, who took out the coveted title, lives in Caloundra, just a stone&#8217;s throw from Australia Zoo. (Nine)<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/bda1ecca-61cc-494a-b3d8-ae046425101a.png\"   alt=\"\"\/>It was Ben&#8217;s dancing that won extra points from the judges. (Nine)<\/p>\n<p>Caloundra father Ben Marshall took out the coveted title.<\/p>\n<p>His striking similarity helped him win $500 in cash but it was his dance moves that got him over the line.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was up all night practising, so yeah, I&#8217;m glad I took out the win,&#8221; Marshall said.<\/p>\n<p>The real Robert took to social media to describe the contest as &#8220;classic&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert Irwin&#8217;s return to Australia has been celebrated with a lookalike search in his home town.Hundreds turned out&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-239208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}