REMEMBER WHEN

Tuesday Sept 19, 2006

IN the world of Rupert McCall, the bloke who was dubbed the Poet Laureate of the Dinkum Aussie, the best work flowed spontaneously from the heart.

And his latest piece at the time, The Crocodiles Are Crying which was written about the death of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin and its impact on McCall’s daughter Ella, struck such a chord that it would be given star treatment at the memorial service at Australia Zoo and televised live across Australia and around the world.

“They said that (Australian movie and television actor) David Wenham might recite it at the service. There’s also talk that it might be Russell Crowe,” said McCall.

He revealed that Irwin’s Australia Zoo contacted him the previous Friday after officials and Irwin’s widow, Terri, had read the poem – which was published in the Gold Coast Bulletin the previous week.

Of course he agreed, but that Friday was a big day for another reason for McCall too.

Wife Kate gave birth to the couple’s fourth child, Lachlan – a little brother for Ella, Jacob and Jimmy.

McCall and Ella were to be VIP guests at the service.

His daughter planned to take her Irwin drawings to add to the huge collection of tributes and flowers that had been left at the public ’shrine’, which grew as fans trekked to the zoo after news broke that Irwin had been killed off Port Douglas on September 4, 2006 by a stingray that panicked as he swam near it and struck him in the heart with its barb.