Steve Irwin’s life celebrated by one of his many US fans Feedback
- George Pappas
Steve Irwin Gets a Unique Tribute Song & You Tube Video from an American Journalist Who Felt Irwin’s Family Needed a Special Christmas Gift This First Christmas Without Their “Crocodile Hunter”

Lawnmower man's Croc Hunter tribute
Geoff Elliott
Washington correspondent
December 19, 2006

JASON Swain, from Queensland's Sunshine Coast, is a landscape gardener and your regular lawn mowing man - in the capital of the United States.
And the Aussie who came here 14 years ago to be with his American wife he met while surfing in Hawaii is becoming something of a celebrity in Washington DC for his tribute to fellow Queenslander Steve Irwin.

In his spare time Mr Swain, 39, is a portrait artist and he was so moved by Irwin’s death from a stingray barb through the heart on the Great Barrier Reef in September that he painted a tribute to him on his van.

His trailer was already adorned with images of Australian wildlife - like kookaburras, a Tasmanian devil and a Kangaroo holding a can of beer. And now, with the addition of Mr Irwin, he’s often stopped as people ask to take a photograph of him and his van. By default, the popularity of Mr Irwin in the US lives on.

Mr Swain never met Mr Irwin, though his brother-in-law Scott Dixon, works for the Irwins as a welder at Australia Zoo in Beerwah.

“Originally I did the portraits on the van for myself and as a tribute to Steve, because we all grew up with the guy and saw him in his early days and when he was really battling at Australia Zoo.

“When they put through the new Bruce Highway bypass, if he had 10 or 15 cars come by, it was a good week,” Mr Swain said. “But he stuck to his guns.”

Mr Swain’s van caught the attention of executives at Discovery Channel, the cable TV network headquartered in Washington that made Mr Irwin famous in America through its wildlife channel offshoot Animal Planet.

And construction giant Bovis Lend Lease has also been looking to sponsor Mr Swain for his efforts, kicking in some funds which will have Mr Swain winging back to Australia in January with his painting to present to Terri Irwin and Australia Zoo. An official presentation is likely to be Australia Day.

The painting has been hanging in Strathmore Gallery in Bethesda, Maryland, just north of Washington and already attracting plenty of attention, including a front page treatment of the Washington Post’s Style liftout.

While Mr Swain clearly knows that an artist doing a portrait of Mr Irwin borders on attention seeking he’s also upfront about what he hopes might be the result. “If it means I can paint a bit more and stop mowing lawns that would be great!”

And that would mean being less nervous around security conscious Washington too. Before his interview with The Australian outside the US Congress, Mr Swain remembered at the last minute to offload bags of potentially explosive ammonium nitrate fertilizer and throw them into his backyard before driving into the city.

“Being a landscaper I often have fertilizer in the back. You just don’t know, they might have had us spread-eagled on the ground here, searching us,” he said.