Steve Irwin's best friend recalls his ‘eerie’ speech days before death

Steve Irwin’s best friend John Stainton has opened up about the eerie ‘farewell’ speech that the wildlife expert gave just weeks prior to his death.

Irwin, widely known as ‘The Crocodile Hunter’, died in September 2006 following a freak accident with an eight-foot stingray while filming the wildlife documentary Ocean’s Deadliest with Stainton on the production team.

Talking on the I’ve Got News for You podcast, Stainton recalled feeling ‘uneasy’ before filming started, saying that he even tried to get the Discovery Channel to cancel the doc but to no avail.

One particular speech from Irwin, days before production began, added to Stainton’s discomfort.

“A couple of days before we started the show, he made a little speech to all the crew that was up there catching crocs for his research trip which I joined at the end with our crew to do the Deadliest movie, and it was really weird,” he recalled.

"He was sort of thanking them all for being who they were and for helping him... It was like a 'finale' speech... Very weird."

He went on to add, "I had this idea on arriving that something was wrong, but it's just life, you never know what things are going to do to you."

Stainton’s worries were realised when a stingray pierced through Irwin’s heart, killing him on September 4, 2006, just days after production began.

November 19 now marks Steve Irwin Day to celebrate his life and legacy and encourage fundraising for the Australia Zoo.