Irwins leave Tassie holiday
By HELEN KEMPTON , Tuesday, 5 September 2006










HEADING HOME: Bindi Irwin leads mum Terri and brother Bob across the tarmac at Devonport Airport to the private jet late yesterday afternoon. Picture: PETER LORD


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Little Bob Irwin clutched his pink pig and looked on bewildered yesterday as his mum Terri and eight-year-old sister Bindi walked quickly across the Devonport Airport tarmac to board a private jet.

It was about 5.15pm.

Just hours earlier, Steve Irwin's three-year-old son, wife and daughter had been holidaying at Cradle Mountain when they heard the terrible news that Australia's Crocodile Hunter had died while filming a documentary about the sea's most dangerous creatures.

A stoic Mrs Irwin drove her two children and two other women down from the mountain and into the old control tower compound at Devonport Airport.

A white jet had landed 20 minutes earlier.

Mrs Irwin got her bags out of the white four-wheel drive, shook hands with the pilot and then guided her children on to the plane to fly home to Queensland and face the grim reality of what had happened at the Great Barrier Reef.

Bindi had her arms full of blankets and her young face showed she understood better than her little brother the gravity of the situation.

Other passengers in the terminal watched on in shock as news of Irwin's sudden death spread quickly.

Devonport police Insp. Lachland Avery said Mrs Irwin appeared to be holding up well in the circumstances.

"She was a bit upset but outwardly very strong," Insp. Avery said yesterday after meeting the Irwins on the tarmac.

Mrs Irwin had contacted Tasmania Police early yesterday afternoon after hearing the news of her husband's death from friends and family in Queensland and via the radio.

It is understood the group - the Irwins and two women many presumed were members of Mrs Irwin's American family - had been in the State only a short while before their holiday was cut short by tragedy.

"She knew of Steve's death before I had to contact her," Sgt Paul Devine said yesterday as he waited for Mrs Irwin to arrive at the airport.

Earlier in the day, calls had been made for a helicopter to fly into Cradle Mountain to fly the family out.

This was not possible and Mrs Irwin drove the 100km from the popular holiday spot to the nearest airport to get home.