Robert Irwin on His Father’s Legacy and the Aussie Spirit He’s Bringing to ‘Dancing With the Stars’

Robert Irwin spent three weeks main as much as his Dancing With the Stars debut removed from the glitzy Hollywood dance ground. He was lined in mud within the Australian bush on Cape York Peninsula, sleeping on a tent ground surrounded by wildlife, and naturally, catching crocodiles.  

“That’s the good a part of attending to dwell right here,” the 21-year-old Australian instructed Journey + Leisure. “It is really easy to get out in the course of nowhere and simply overlook every little thing. You’re feeling such as you’re a part of one thing a lot greater than your self.”

However for the conservationist, there’s a private significance to the world—it was a spot liked by his dad Steve Irwin, who died 19 years in the past this month when he was simply two years previous. “It’s the place I really feel his vitality and his ardour greater than wherever else,” mentioned Irwin. The Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve there protects 35 completely different ecosystems throughout 330,000 acres. “It’s an actual privilege to get to spend time there,” the proud son mentioned forward of the journey. “However then I go away straight from the crocodile analysis expedition—neck-deep in mud—and fly on to Hollywood for Dancing with the Stars! It’s going to be a little bit of a tradition shock.”

Whereas he claimed he might not have the dance abilities, he’s excited to showcase the Aussie ardour. “We positively have that dancing tradition, however we’re far much less refined,” he mentioned. “Each foolish dance transfer in all probability got here from us—my go-to was all the time the sprinkler!” 

And he’s received some profitable footwear to fill, as his sister Bindi Irwin took residence the Mirror Ball Trophy in 2015. “You might hear the screams of pleasure from Australia after I instructed her I used to be going to do the present,” he mentioned of his childhood aim to compete, having been there for each step of Bindi’s journey. “The very first thing she mentioned is ‘make it your personal,’ which has caught with me.” 

Carving his personal path has been one thing Irwin has achieved all his life, regardless of “being on digital camera since I used to be actually in regards to the dimension of a loaf of bread.” Whereas very a lot following in his household’s footsteps because the zoo supervisor for Australia Zoo, he’s additionally put a give attention to images (his Instagram account is @robertirwinphotography), and travels to advocate for the Irwin nonprofit, Wildlife Warriors.

However he actually veered his personal approach this July, taking his first solo journey in a four-wheel drive alongside the south coast of Queensland into New South Wales. “Touring by yourself brings this new dynamic,” Irwin mentioned, admitting that “at first, it was a bit of bit daunting.” 

Quickly, he discovered his footing, visiting seashores, browsing, skateboarding, and climbing solo. At one level, he hiked to a tucked-away seashore and located nobody there. “I keep in mind going, what I will do? Completely nothing,” he mentioned. “I am not going to go to my subsequent cease. I am simply going to spend the entire day parked right here at this seashore, watching the world go by.”

Embracing the “releasing feeling,” he did have a small mishap on the journey when he stopped at Coffs Harbour’s The Jetty Pavilion for a salad. “Lots of beautiful individuals wished to say hello and have an image,” which he was glad to take pleasure in. “However I left in a little bit of a rush and completely forgot to pay!”

As trustworthy as he’s constructive, Irwin turned again, solely to search out that phrase had gotten out and each media outlet on the town was ready to see if he’d come again to pay. “It was completely hilarious,” he mentioned. “And I do must shout out their salad, which was nice!”

Regardless of the mini hiccup, the solo journey was a throwback to his childhood travels. “If there was the choice and time to have the ability to road-trip someplace as an alternative of fly, we all the time took the chance,” he mentioned.

When he was 4, the household drove from Adelaide to Darwin, stopping in Uluru alongside the way in which. “It was simply essentially the most fantastic time in my life to get out into the Pink Centre, the place the filth’s crimson within the desert—it will get in your nostril, in your pockets, in all places,” he mentioned. “The sunsets are like nothing you’ve seen, just like the saturation has been turned approach up. It makes you are feeling such as you’re at one with the pure world.”

And as he received older, he additionally hung out touring with simply Bindi. “It’s the good feeling whenever you begin to develop up and do issues by yourself, you are feeling such as you’re 10 toes tall,” Irwin mentioned. “Having an older sibling was like I had a second mum. Bindi’s solely six years older, however may be very conscientious and an actual caregiver. I might flex my independence, however I additionally had nearly a parental determine being like, ‘Now you’ve received to brush your enamel!’” Nonetheless, he mentioned the 2 all the time “have a number of enjoyable and infrequently get on one another’s nerves.” 

Whereas his relationship with Bindi has all the time been “close-knit,” he admitted he was “extraordinarily jealous” when she received to movie a documentary on the Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia, the place he has but to go to. “She was sending photos of her casually chilling out subsequent to a whale shark, and I used to be internally screaming,” he mentioned. “That’s positively the following cab off the rank for me!”

These days, household journeys embrace Bindi’s four-year-old daughter Grace, like a latest journey to Disneyland, the place she was awestruck by Princess Tiana. “It’s the smartest thing in the entire world, watching your niece do all of the stuff you used to do as a child,” Irwin mentioned. “Grace has such an unimaginable vitality about her—there may be a lot of father’s genetics.”

These Irwin genes do certainly run deep, as he displays on his father’s legacy. “He is the embodiment of ardour, of dwelling life to 100%,” the TV character mentioned. “If Australia have been an individual, it might be my dad. To like your wildlife, to be passionate, to have that spirit of mateship and camaraderie with everybody. He’s only a superhero to me.” 

The younger Irwin is little question his dad’s mini-me, lengthy an unofficial spokesperson for his beloved residence. Now he’s teamed up with Tourism Australia for the following chapter of their Come and Say G’day marketing campaign, hoping that extra vacationers will discover the “huge” continent. “Folks consider it as this little island nation, but it surely’s the identical dimension because the decrease 48 United States,” he mentioned. 

The gateway cities of Sydney and Melbourne are the proper hubs to ease into the Aussie lifestyle, experiencing each its espresso tradition and metropolis buzz, he mentioned. However for Irwin, it’s all about getting out to the seashores in Sydney, the place he all the time goes “straight into the surf.” He additionally recommends adrenaline seekers go on the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb. Over in Melbourne, it’s all in regards to the “next-level” meals and wine.

However Irwin says that “the actual coronary heart of Australia is whenever you get out into the bush, whether or not that is into the Outback, up north into the rainforest, hitting up the seashores, or heading down south to someplace like Tasmania, discovering these little hidden gems, connecting with the locals, individuals, and wildlife.”

There isn’t any place extra pricey to him than the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, the place he grew up inside certainly one of its most coveted sights, Australia Zoo, simply 5 minutes from a volcanic mountain vary and quarter-hour from the seashore.

“I had each child’s dream come true—I fairly actually grew up in the course of a zoo,” he mentioned. “It’s arduous for me to even name it a zoo, it’s like a resort for wildlife and hub for conservation.” Set on tons of of acres, his favourite spot is the kangaroo paddocks, particularly seeing “this wonderful little relationship unfold” between younger guests and the “peaceable” animals. After hours, he usually revels in “becoming a member of the roos for a nap.”

Irwin’s additionally happy with the “stunning, sustainable, environmentally-focused luxurious lodging,” The Crocodile Hunter Lodge, which opened in 2022. In actual fact, chatting to us from the lodge, he marveled when a wild kangaroo jumped over to the window. “He’s watching the interview—that’s completely traditional,” he mentioned, taking a photograph of the second. “That is the signal of an excellent zoo when animals are attempting to get in!”

However total for Irwin, there is a sense of wonderment for all issues Aussie. “The place I dwell is a lot extra than simply residence—it’s actually the place my coronary heart beats from,” he mentioned. “I have been fortunate sufficient to journey to simply about each nook of the planet. While you come again to Australia, you are stuffed with this sense of heat. There isn’t any different strategy to describe it.”