'Gone too early': warrior Steve Irwin's enduring legacy

Twenty years after Steve Irwin's sudden death, a man who wrestled crocodiles with him for a living still can't talk about it without choking up.

Holidaying in France in 2006, Mark Read had just returned from a walk with his baby daughter when he found his wife sobbing outside an internet café.

Two decades on, the memories of the man the world knew as the Crocodile Hunter still cause a lump in his throat.

Read first met Irwin in 1997 on what can only be described as a very Steve Irwin kind of operation, a turtle rodeo in Moreton Bay.

People were tearing around in small, fast boats in shallow water, hurling themselves overboard to wrestle the surprised critters to the surface.

From that chaotic first encounter, the pair went on to spend years working together on crocodile research across north Queensland.

Their collaboration helped launch a pioneering satellite‑tracking effort dubbed Crocs in Space, a partnership between Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, Australia Zoo and the University of Queensland.

It used some of the first functional satellite transmitters ever fitted to estuarine crocodiles, revealing how far the big predators could roam and even how many found their way home after relocation.

Far from a caricature, Read remembers Irwin as an extraordinarily intelligent, relentlessly curious field collaborator.

Inside was an even tattier folder and notepad he constantly filled with sketches to capture techniques and ideas for future research.

There were long, quiet hours that never made it to television - nights around campfires and early mornings when Irwin would wake Read for tea and conversations about crocodiles, wild places and how to get the public to care.

For a man with global reach and serious earning power, Irwin never changed, turning up to remote field trips in boots with holes patched up with gaffer tape.

"It most certainly wasn't about earning a heap of money and living a lavish lifestyle."

What struck Read was Irwin's visceral understanding of dangerous animals.