Justin Lyons, the last man who spoke to Steve Irwin before his death, has recalled the beloved Aussie conservationist’s harrowing final moments.
The world was stunned when Steve Irwin died from a stingray attack during a routine documentary shoot on September 4, 2006. It’s 20 years on and the world still can’t stop talking about him.
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.
“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 tragic morning began off the coast of Far North Queensland at Batt Reef. The crew had originally been targeting tiger sharks aboard Irwin’s boat, Croc One, but decided to scout for other marine life while waiting for the sharks to arrive.
After spotting a bull ray, Irwin and Lyons got in the water with a single underwater camera.
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 – a 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 had calmed so he continued to pan the shot of the stingray before panning back to Steve. That’s when he jumped out of the water, which was full of blood, screaming out “It’s punctured me lung!”
The cameraman dragged Steve into the boat, 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.
For 45 minutes, the crew aboard Croc One desperately performed CPR while speeding towards Low Island.
By the time they returned to the beach, Lyons saw the helicopter and paramedics land and felt an “absolute sense of relief” believing they would be able to save Irwin.
But within 10 seconds of the paramedics arriving they declared Irwin dead.
“It was like absolute despair,” Lyons said.
“I remembered thinking my whole world’s just changed, just like that and it was never the same.”
Steve Irwin: A Wild Life featured never-before-seen footage and exclusive interviews with Irwin’s inner circle including Lyons, Irwin’s right-hand man Brian Coulter and his long-time manager John Stainton.