HE TOLD US ‘KEEP FILMING’
Untold stories from the tragedy
IT WAS a stunning tropical start to the spring for those visiting Low Isles on September 4, 2006 – and then all hell broke loose.
Low Islands Preservation Society volunteers Lee Walters and Jill Booth had just arrived at the island to look after its famous lighthouse for the weekend, while then-caretaker Steve Sharpe was away with his partner.
Ms Walters, who lives at Port Douglas, distinctly remembers hearing the emergency helicopter flying in to land at the island’s small beach.
“By the time we rushed out there, the helicopter was landing on the beach and the crew had brought (Australian wildlife broadcaster) Steve (Irwin) in and put him in the shed, which was always open and ready and empty,” she said.
“The helicopter landed on the beach.
“The doctors jumped out, and there were two or three doctors in the helicopter.
‘The crew were all around, very distressed as you can imagine.
“The doctors had a defibrillator and were working on him for a short time, less than 10 minutes, and then said he was dead.”
There was little else Ms Walters and Ms Booth could do at the scene, so they tried to keep gawking tourists away from the boat shed.
During this time, they noticed a man filming the whole incident.
“I remember saying to Jill, oh, he shouldn’t be filming this,” Ms Walters said.
“The guy from the boat was filming the whole thing.”
Irwin’s body was carried to the helicopter, and after it flew away to Cairns, the crew start- ed cleaning up the shed.
Ms Walters said she soon received a phone call from local media, asking her about Irwin’s death.
“I didn’t say anything,” she said. “I was pretty sure Steve was dead, but it wasn’t my place to say so, so I just said he had been brought to the island and taken away by a helicopter, and just left it at that.”
A decade later, Ms Walters said she had only spoken about that day with friends and family. She said she was saddened looking at photos taken of Irwin the day before the tragedy, where he was standing on the bow of the ship, smiling.
“There was a poignant shot of him going out on Croc One in the morning, standing on the bow waving,” she said.
“I said ‘wow’. It shows you can never tell when your number’s up.” See the gallery of Steve Irwin’s life in pictures on cairnspost.com.au