Croc Hunter's last moments recounted in horrific ABC interview

LISA MILLAR: Looking pale and upset, Steve Irwin's long-time friend and manager John Stainton joined the police media conference this morning in Cairns.

He'd been on the boat with Mr Irwin yesterday and they'd shared an early morning cup of tea, his friend telling him he'd never been happier. Now Mr Stainton has had to watch the confronting footage of his friend's death.

JOHN STAINTON: I did see the footage, and it's shocking. It's a very hard thing to watch, because you are actually witnessing somebody die, and it's terrible.

REPORTER: What does it show, John?

JOHN STAINTON: It shows that the, Steve came over the top of the ray, and then the tail came up and spiked him here, and he pulled it out, and the next minute he's gone. And that was it, and then the cameraman had to shut down.

REPORTER: How close would he have been to the ray at the time?

JOHN STAINTON: Umm, probably, a metre maybe? Coming over the top of it.

REPORTER: Did Steve say anything before died?

JOHN STAINTON: He was underwater.

LISA MILLAR: Steve Irwin always thought too close was never close enough when it came to the dangerous creatures he filmed for audiences around the globe.

JOHN STAINTON: There's been a million occasions that we, probably both of us, held our breath and thought, gee, we are lucky to get out of that one. And I mean, I've had to look at vision back, sometimes with snakes, because they've been so close to him, but he just seemed to have a charmed life, that nothing he did…

LISA MILLAR: But Police Superintendent Mike Keating says there is nothing suspicious about what happened on Bat Reef just before noon on Monday.

MIKE KEATING: At the time of his death Mr Irwin was interacting with a sting ray on the Great Barrier Reef, there is no evidence that Mr Irwin was intimidating or threatening the stingray. My advice is that he was observing the stingray.

There are no suspicious circumstances in relation to the death of Mr Irwin. And as with all deaths, the police will interview witnesses and report on the death to the coroner.

LISA MILLAR: The video tape is now part of the investigation, once the coroner has finished his report, Mr Irwin's body will be released, Mr Stainton will take it back to the Sunshine Coast where Mr Irwin's wife Terri and children Bob and Bindi remain.

JOHN STAINTON: I think she's been very strong, and I think for their children's sake she has to be strong, because they're very impressionable ages, you know, Bindi is eight, and little Robert's coming up to three.

So he may not understand totally, but Bindi certainly does. And she's very mindful of how she has to control her emotions to get the kids though it.

LISA MILLAR: Mr Stainton says the man who was known around the world as the Crocodile Hunter ploughed everything he had into wildlife conservation and had just spent the best month of his life researching crocodiles on Cape York.

But it was ironically not on land, but in the sea that the crocodile hunter came undone.

JOHN STAINTON: It was... the actual thing that he was shooting was for Bindi's new TV show, which was about to start next week when we go back, and it's the thing that he was doing at that point. I mean, considering that the program that we were shooting, the documentary, was called Ocean's Deadliest, it was just ironic.

It was ironic, because when you start out on those sort of programs, you always think, gosh, we're going to be dealing with everything that could kill you, and knowing Steve wants to touch everything, we are really in a dangerous situation.

I was always aware of that we were probably heading into a darker territory with this show. But he was always in control and he was always, he was just invincible.