![]() ![]() The film-makers maintain that the ray that took Irwin out was a "bull ray", or Dasyatis brevicaudata, but this is not usually found as far north as Port Douglas. The lashing response of the tail is automatic the barb is coated with a bacterial slime as deadly as rotten oyster toxin.Īs a Melbourne boy, Irwin should have had a healthy respect for stingrays, which are actually commoner, and bigger, in southern waters than they are near Port Douglas, where he was killed. What you don't want to do with a stingray is stand on it. Port Philip Bay was famous for stingrays, which are fine as long as you can see them, but they do what most Dasyatidae do, which is bury themselves in the sand or mud with only their eyes sticking out. ![]() One of them must have been the chap who bought it 60 years ago in Brighton Baths where my school used to go on swimming days. We are now being told that only three people have ever been killed by Australian stingrays. It eats crustaceans, for God's sake.) All Australian children know about stingrays. You can just imagine Irwin yelling: "Just look at these beauties! Crikey! With those barbs a stingray can kill a horse!" (Yes, Steve, but a stingray doesn't want to kill a horse. ![]() What seems to have happened on Batt Reef is that Irwin and a cameraman went off in a little dinghy to see what they could find. ![]()
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