Beerwah (Australia): Amid an international outpouring of emotion over the death of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, his funeral arrangements have been dogged by a dispute over whether he should get a state funeral or a private one.
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has offered to hold a state funeral for Irwin, but his family is not quite amenable to the idea, saying
Irwin would have wanted to be remembered as an ordinary bloke.
"Steve would not have wanted a state funeral because he was an ordinary bloke and wanted to be remembered that way," the TV star's father, Bob Irwin, said. A final decision of the issue is likely to be taken later on Wednesday after the Irwin family takes a decision on this.
Bob said the family had made no plans yet for a funeral and the decision rests with Steve's American-born wife, Terri. But he said the family was not interested in offers of a state funeral.
The Queensland Government is also planning to honour Irwin by naming a national park after him. Irwin, 44, died in a freak accident on Monday after a stingray barb pierced his chest as he was snorkelling off north Queensland while making a documentary.
His body was returned on a charter flight on Tuesday night to the Sunshine Coast hinterland, where the Irwin family owns and lives at Australia Zoo. But there was no sign of Irwin's American-born wife Terri, who was trekking in Tasmania when her husband died.
In the first comments by Irwin's family, Bob Irwin thanked his son's many fans for their messages of support.
Bob Irwin, who moved his family to the fringe of the Outback in the 1970s to open a reptile park that inspired his young son's obsession with wildlife, said he was deeply saddened by his son's death but that he died doing what he loved.
(With agency inputs)
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