Honouring Steve's way

8:01a.m. 28th September 2006

TRIBUTE: Steve Irwin Way will be officially named before Christmas.

By AMY REMEIKIS

THE 30km stretch which led Steve Irwin home countless times will be renamed in his honour by the state government.

Signs proclaiming the Steve Irwin Way will be up by Christmas on Glasshouse Mountains Road, a move which left those closest to Steve overwhelmed.

Its amazing, absolutely amazing, his father Bob said. We are so pleased, so happy.

Steves manager and long-term mate John Stainton said the honour had seen the Irwins history come full circle.

When Bob and Lyn first set up the zoo in the 70s they built the reptile park on what was then the main road into the Sunshine Coast, the Bruce Highway, he said.

Then in the 80s the highway was shifted to the east and the road they were on became a tourist road ... it cut them off, which was very hard for the Irwins, who were relying on the large volumes of passing traffic for their livelihood.

It really set them back a lot and for a struggling family with three kids, Im sure it was a major obstacle for them.

Im sure there were times when they would have thought about packing it all in.

So what has happened now, we have seen fortunes turn around, Steve turned the reptile park into Australia Zoo, a place with international significance, and today it has all come full circle and that road which was once make it or break it for his family has become the Steve Irwin Way.

Its amazing.

He (Steve) would have been over the moon, yes he would have been very proud. He grew up knowing what a problem it was to have a tourist park relying on traffic from what was a tourist road, so he would have been unbelievably proud and awestruck by this.

In announcing the plan, Premier Peter Beattie said the Sunshine Coast owed a great debt to Steve and his family.

Steve Irwin and his family have put Beerwah on the map and I can think of no more fitting tribute than to rename the road that runs past Australia Zoo in his honour, Mr Beattie said.

The declaration of Steve Irwin Way is the first step in helping to build a lasting memorial to Steve Irwins work. And I look forward to working with the family over coming months to find other ways to recognise Steve Irwins work.

Mr Beattie said naming a new state forest or park after Mr Irwin, or renaming an existing one, were possibilities.

But the Premier said the government would consult the family before anything was decided.