Bindi and Robert Irwin Post Tributes To Late Dad On What Would Have Been His 60th Birthday

It's been over 15 years since Australian animal lover Steve Irwin sadly died.

And to mark what would have been his 60th birthday, his children Bindi and Robert have now shared emotional tributes to their late dad.

The pair have taken to social media and posted special photos from their childhood of them with him.

Sharing a snap of her and Steve holding a snake, Bindi wrote: "Happy Birthday to the greatest dad and Wildlife Warrior.

"Today I’ll watch The Crocodile Hunter with Grace Warrior and share stories about her incredible Grandpa Crocodile.

"I love you with all my heart. Your legacy lives on."

Posting his own tribute, Robert shared a picture of himself as a young boy, riding a motorcycle with his dad, which he says is a particularly special memory.

It read: "Happy birthday Dad. I love you and I miss you more every single day.

"My earliest memories are my fondest, thanks to you. Hanging on tight to the handlebars of the motorbike, when you’d take Bindi and I on your morning lap of the zoo - before going to get ice cream for breakfast.

"Every minute spent with you was a blessing. 

"I’m gonna ride that lap on your old motorbike this afternoon."

Steve was filming on Batt Reef for a new show, when he encountered a a 220lb bull stingray - measuring 2.4 metres wide - which started to behave strangely.

The animal became increasingly aggressive and stabbed him with 'hundreds of strikes in a few seconds'.

At the time, cameraman Justin Lyons kept on filming, thinking that nothing had happened, but when his camera turned he saw Irwin covered in blood.

They hurled him back onto their dinghy and started to rush for emergency medical treatment.

Justin said: "I panned with the camera as the stingray swam away. I didn't even know it had caused any damage. It wasn't until I panned the camera back and Steve was standing in a huge pool of blood that I realised something had gone wrong."

On the boat, it became clear that Steve might not survive.

Justin continued: "He was having trouble breathing. Even if we'd been able to get him into an emergency ward at that moment we probably wouldn't have been able to save him, because the damage to his heart was massive.

"As we're motoring back I'm screaming at one of the other crew in the boat to put their hand over the wound and we're saying to him things like, 'Think of your kids, Steve, hang on, hang on, hang on'.

"He just calmly looked up at me and said, 'I'm dying.' And that was the last thing he said."

Once they got back to the main boat, Croc One, Justin performed mouth-to-mouth on Steve for an hour, but paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.