ROBERT IRWAN 'I wish could ask Dad for advice'

As the son of Steve Irwin, he's spent his entire life in the public domain, continuing to spread his father's message. Now, aged 20, Robert has found love, and is striking out in a new direction.

- TIFFANY DUNK

Eating your cereal in front of cartoons packed with superheroes is a rite of passage for young children. Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, the Incredible Hulk … Kids are glued to the set watching the action unfold over breakfast. But three-year-old Robert Irwin’s favourite superhero was far closer to home. Bounding out of bed each morning, he would beg his mum, Terri, to put on an episode of his own favourite show – to “play a daddy doco”.

“That was with breakfast, every morning,” he says now, aged 20 and about to start a new chapter in his life. “I remember studying it and watching everything he did. Mum made sure he was in the living room. Dad was part of everything.”

Steve Irwin looms large in our conversation today at Australia Zoo as we catch up with his younger child, Robert.

With Steve’s image still proudly displayed around the grounds, the zoo itself remains a living shrine to the man who took the word “crikey” worldwide while blazing a trail as a documentarian and wildlife conservationist. It was here that The Weekly first met Robert as a baby. And it was here that the family of four – Steve, Terri, Bindi and Robert – took part in a final photo shoot for us, which would end up on the cover of our October 2006 issue, pulled together hastily in the wake of Steve’s tragic death, aged just 44.

Recently, says Robert, Terri cleared out his old bedroom. In the sweep, she stumbled across the tiny jumper – emblazoned with a moose – that he wore in that final family photo shoot.

“She was showing it to me and saying, ‘Look how little you were,’ as mums always do and I went, ‘I remember that,’” he says. The memory instantly and powerfully flooded back.