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 reside right here,” the 21-year-old Australian advised Journey + Leisure. “It is really easy to get out in the course of nowhere and simply neglect the whole lot. You are feeling such as you’re a part of one thing a lot larger than your self.”

However for the conservationist, there’s a private significance to the realm—it was a spot beloved by his dad Steve Irwin, who died 19 years in the past this month when he was simply two years outdated. “It’s the place I really feel his power and his ardour greater than anyplace else,” stated Irwin. The Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve protects 35 completely different ecosystems throughout 330,000 acres. “It’s an actual privilege to get to spend time there,” the proud son stated 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 expertise, he’s excited to showcase the Aussie ardour. “We positively have that dancing tradition, however we’re far much less refined,” he stated. “Each foolish dance transfer in all probability got here from us—my go-to was all the time the sprinkler!” 

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

Carving his personal path has been one thing Irwin has completed 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 manager for Australia Zoo, he’s additionally put a deal with pictures (his Instagram account is @robertirwinphotography), and travels to advocate for the Irwin nonprofit, Wildlife Warriors.

However he actually veered his personal manner 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 stated, admitting that “at first, it was somewhat bit daunting.” 

Quickly, he discovered his footing, visiting seashores, browsing, skateboarding, and mountaineering solo. At one level, he hiked to a tucked-away seashore and located nobody there. “I bear in mind going, you recognize what I’ll do? Completely nothing,” he stated. “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 “liberating feeling,” he did have a small mishap when he stopped at Coffs Harbour’s The Jetty Pavilion for a salad. “Loads of beautiful folks 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 sincere 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 stated. “And I do should 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 stated.

When he was 4, the household drove from Adelaide to Darwin, stopping in Uluru alongside the best way. “It was simply probably the most great 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 every single place,” he stated. “The sunsets are like nothing you’ve seen, just like the saturation has been turned manner up. It makes you’re feeling such as you’re at one with the pure world.”

And as he bought older, he additionally frolicked touring with simply Bindi. “It’s the best feeling while you begin to develop up and do issues by yourself, you’re feeling such as you’re 10 ft tall,” Irwin stated. “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 may flex my independence, however I additionally had nearly a parental determine being like, ‘Now you’ve bought to brush your tooth!’” Nonetheless, he stated the 2 all the time “have lots 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 bought to movie a documentary on the Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia, the place he has but to go to. “She was sending footage of her casually chilling out subsequent to a whale shark, and I used to be internally screaming,” he stated. “That’s positively the subsequent cab off the rank for me!”

These days, household journeys embrace Bindi’s four-year-old daughter Grace, together with a current journey to Disneyland, the place she was awestruck by Princess Tiana. “It’s the neatest thing in the entire world, watching your niece do all of the belongings you used to do as a child,” Irwin stated. “Grace has such an unbelievable power about her—there’s 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 residing life to one hundred pc,” the TV character stated. “If Australia had 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 dwelling. Now he’s teamed up with Tourism Australia, hoping that extra vacationers will discover the “large” continent. “Folks consider it as this little island nation that is type of simply down, nevertheless it’s the identical dimension because the decrease 48 United States,” he stated. 

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 stated. 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 true coronary heart of Australia is while 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—folks, and wildlife.”

There is no place extra pricey to him than the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, the place he grew up inside one in every 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 stated. “It’s laborious for me to even name it a zoo, it’s like a resort for wildlife and hub for conservation.” Set on lots of of acres, his favourite spot is the kangaroo paddocks, particularly seeing “this superb 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 “lovely, 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 stated, taking a photograph of the second. “That is the signal of a great zoo when animals try to get in!”

However total for Irwin, there is a sense of wonderment for all issues Aussie. “The place I reside is a lot extra than simply dwelling—it’s actually the place my coronary heart beats from,” he stated. “I have been fortunate sufficient to journey to only about each nook of the planet. Whenever you come again to Australia, you are stuffed with this sense of heat. There is no different option to describe it.”