Bindi Irwin is tied to a new look at the day Steve Irwin died, after Justin Lyons recounted the final moments in Steve Irwin: A Wild Life. Lyons said Irwin told him, “I’m dying,” after a stingray attack off the coast of Far North Queensland at Batt Reef on September 4, 2006.
The recollection comes 20 years after the incident and follows Lyons’ account that the crew had set out on what he described as a routine documentary shoot. The details place the fatal attack, the rescue and the later retrospective in one line of memory that still centers on the man beside Irwin in the boat.
Justin Lyons on Croc One
Lyons, a cameraman and producer, said the crew had been targeting tiger sharks aboard Croc One before Irwin and Lyons got in the water after spotting a bull ray. He said he did not expect trouble that day: “Waking up, nobody had any idea what was in store for us that day.”
Lyons said Irwin swam up over the stingray and it “started stabbing madly towards him with its tail.” He recalled the water filling with blood when Irwin jumped out and shouted, “It’s punctured me lung!”
Steve Irwin on Batt Reef
Lyons said he dragged Steve into the boat after the attack. From there, the crew aboard Croc One performed CPR for 45 minutes while speeding towards Low Island.
By the time they returned to the beach, Lyons said he felt an “absolute sense of relief” when the helicopter and paramedics landed. The account is specific about the sequence of events, but it leaves one point hanging: what exact injuries Steve Irwin sustained beyond the puncture wound Lyons described.
Steve Irwin: A Wild Life
The renewed attention centers on the 20-year mark after Irwin’s death and on the fact that Lyons was the last man to speak to him before he died. In this retelling, the value is not in a broader recap of the day, but in the first-person detail from the person who pulled him back into the boat and heard the words as Irwin was still conscious.
